Homer Timeline

(c. 800 BCE – c. 701 BCE)

Homer is the semi-legendary ancient Greek poet traditionally credited with composing the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two foundational epic poems of Western literature. Believed to have lived around the 8th century BCE, possibly in Ionia (modern-day Turkey), Homer's identity remains a mystery, with seven cities claiming to be his birthplace. His works shaped Greek education, culture, and mythology, and continue to influence literature and storytelling to this day. More Less

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Ancient Origins

Aristocratic warriors wore boar's tusk helmets

1600 BC - 1150 BC

Certain helmets described in the Homeric poems were not worn in Homer's own time but were commonly worn by aristocratic warriors between 1600 and 1150 BC, suggesting preservation of very old details in the tradition.

Image source: Homer

Legendary origin of the Trojan War myth

1220 BC

The year 1220 BC is sometimes cited as the origin of the myth of the Trojan War, while others hold that the poem was inspired by multiple similar sieges that took place over the centuries.

Image source: Trojan War

Traditional date for the sack of Troy

1184 BC

In ancient Greek chronology, the sack of Troy, the central event celebrated in Homer's Iliad, was dated to 1184 BC.

Composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey

800 BC - 750 BC

Scholar Powell dates the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey to sometime between 800 and 750 BC, based on Herodotus' statement that Homer lived four hundred years before his own time 'and not more', and on the fact that the poems do not mention hoplite battle tactics, inhumation, or literacy. Richard Janko has similarly proposed an eighth-century date based on linguistic analysis and statistics.

Image source: Homeric Question

Possible birth of Homer in the 8th century BC

799 BC

Homer (Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος) was an ancient Greek poet traditionally credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. He was possibly born around the 8th century BC.

Schliemann announces discovery of Troy

1873

By the nineteenth century there was widespread scholarly skepticism that the Trojan War had ever happened and that Troy had even existed, but in 1873 Heinrich Schliemann announced to the world that he had discovered the ruins of Homer's Troy at Hisarlik in modern Turkey.

Image source: Heinrich Schliemann

Antiquity and Transmission

Orally transmitted poems put into written form

800 BC - 600 BC

The orally transmitted Homeric poems were put into written form at some point between the eighth and sixth centuries BC. Other scholars hold that after their creation in the eighth century, they continued to be orally transmitted with considerable revision until being written down in the sixth century.

Early implicit references to Homer by lyric poets

699 BC

The first early implicit references to Homer in the 7th century BC appear in works by Archilochus, Alcman, Tyrtaeus, and Callinus.

Alleged knowledge of 7th-century Near Eastern events

663 BC

Some scholars interpret passages in the Iliad as showing knowledge of historical events in the ancient Near East during the middle of the seventh century BC, including the destruction of Babylon by Sennacherib in 689 BC and the Sack of Thebes by Ashurbanipal in 664/663 BC.

Peisistratean recension in Athens

550 BC - 528 BC

In antiquity it was widely held that the Homeric poems were collected and organised in Athens in the late sixth century BC by Pisistratus (died 528/527 BC), in what subsequent scholars have dubbed the 'Peisistratean recension'. This idea is referenced by Cicero and in several other surviving sources, including two ancient Lives of Homer.

Image source: Homer

Pindar links Homer to Chios and Smyrna

500 BC

The poet Pindar is credited with saying that Homer originated from Chios and Smyrna, claims also mentioned by other fifth-century writers.

Homeric Question

Nagy's view: tradition evolves until mid-2nd century BC

150 BC

At one extreme, American scholars such as Gregory Nagy see 'Homer' as a continually evolving tradition, which grew more stable as it progressed but did not fully cease changing and evolving until as late as the middle of the second century BC.

Abbé d'Aubignac attacks the existence of Homer

1664

In 1664, contradicting widespread praise of Homer as the epitome of wisdom, François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac wrote a scathing attack declaring the Homeric poems incoherent, immoral, tasteless, and without style, that Homer never existed, and that the poems were hastily cobbled together by incompetent editors from unrelated oral songs.

Image source: François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac

Vico argues Homer was many men

1744

Giambattista Vico analysed Homer and other ancient writings in his philological treatise The New Science (1744) and concluded that Homer was not one man, but many, or an amalgam of other writers.

Image source: Giambattista Vico

Wolf publishes Prolegomena ad Homerum

1795

Friedrich August Wolf's Prolegomena ad Homerum argued that much of the material later incorporated into the Iliad and Odyssey was originally composed in the tenth century BC as short, separate oral songs, passed through oral tradition for roughly four hundred years before being assembled into prototypical versions in the sixth century BC by literate authors.

Analyst school seeks original authentic poems

1800 - 1899

Wolf and the 'Analyst' school, which led the field in the nineteenth century, sought to recover the original, authentic poems thought to be concealed by later excrescences. By around 1830 these scholarly preoccupations had been dubbed 'the Homeric Question'.

Parry and Lord develop Oral-Formulaic Theory

1928

Starting around 1928, Milman Parry and Albert Lord, after studying folk bards in the Balkans, developed the 'Oral-Formulaic Theory': that the Homeric poems were originally composed through improvised oral performances relying on traditional epithets and poetic formulas.

Image source: Milman Parry

Arend names the 'type scenes'

1933

The so-called 'type scenes' (typische Szenen), recurring narrative patterns in the Homeric epics, were named by Walter Arend in 1933.

Nagy's foundational work on Homeric tradition

1979

Gregory Nagy published influential scholarship in 1979 that shaped modern understanding of Homer as an evolving oral tradition, followed by further work in 2010.

Image source: Gregory Nagy

Janko dates the Homeric poems linguistically

1982

Richard Janko's 1982 work proposed a date for both the Iliad and the Odyssey in the eighth century BC based on linguistic analysis and statistics.

Modern Scholarship and Editions

Byzantine scholars produce commentaries on Homer

1100 - 1199

Byzantine scholars such as Eustathius of Thessalonica and John Tzetzes produced commentaries, extensions and scholia to Homer, especially in the twelfth century. Eustathius's commentary on the Iliad alone sprawls over nearly 4,000 oversized pages in a 21st-century printed version, with nearly 2,000 additional pages on the Odyssey.

First printed edition of Homer published

1488

In 1488, the Greek scholar Demetrios Chalkokondyles published the editio princeps of the Homeric poems in Florence; this was the first printed edition of Homer.

Basel editions by Micyllus and Camerarius

1535 - 1551

Editions of Homer with comments were produced by Micyllus and Camerarius at Basel in 1535, with an improved text in 1541, and a further edition including commentary in 1551.

Later Basel editions of Homer

1572 - 1592

Further printed editions of the Homeric poems appeared in 1572, 1588, and 1592.

Leaf's edition of the Iliad

1886 - 1888

Walter Leaf published his edition of the Iliad in London between 1886 and 1888, followed by a second edition.

Image source: Walter Leaf

Monro publishes scholarship on Homer

1911

David Binning Monro, a noted Homeric scholar, contributed important work on Homer published in 1911.

Image source: David Monro (scholar)

van Thiel's edition follows medieval vulgate

1991 - 1996

Van Thiel's editions of the Homeric poems (1991, 1996) follow the medieval vulgate, whereas the nineteenth-century edition of Arthur Ludwich mainly follows Aristarchus's work.

Martin West's critical studies of Homer

1998 - 2000

Martin West produced major critical scholarship on the Homeric poems published across 1998–2000, contributing to modern textual and analytical study of Homer.

Image source: Martin Litchfield West

Key Facts

Homer is traditionally credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the earliest surviving works of Western literature.
His exact life dates are unknown, but scholars generally place him around the 8th century BCE.
The 'Homeric Question' refers to the scholarly debate over whether Homer was a single historical person or a symbolic figure representing multiple oral poets.
Homer's epics were originally composed orally and passed down through generations by rhapsodes before being written down.
His works profoundly influenced ancient Greek culture, serving as educational foundations and shaping concepts of heroism, honor, and the gods.

Source

This Homer timeline was generated with the help of AI, using information found on the internet.

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