Questions tagged [homer]
For questions about Homer, the author of the poems Iliad and Odyssey.
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Is there any evidence as to which incidents in the Odyssey were invented by Homer and which were existing legends (apart from the Trojan War)?
Homer's epic the Odyssey is mainly about the Greek hero Odysseus' adventures on his way home from the Trojan War, including raiding the Cicones at Ismaros, the lotus eaters, the Cyclops' cave, the ...
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Date (time of year) of the Iliad?
Does Homer give any clue as to the time of year, or even the specific dates, when events in the Iliad occur? I don't mean the absolute chronology (e.g., 1184 BCE or whatever) or span of time (e.g., +9 ...
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Why does Zielinski's Law exist? Were the poets unable to say "meanwhile"?
According to Zielinski's Law the ancient poets told simultaneous events chronologically without moving back and forth in time.
Did Homer and Hesiod not have a way to say 'meanwhile'?
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How does Glaucus know Patroclus killed Sarpedon?
I'm reading the Loeb Iliad so I have the original Greek text alongside English and am confused when reading verse Il. 16-543:
τὸν δ᾽ ὑπὸ Πατρόκλῳ δάμασ᾽ ἔγχεϊ χάλκεος Ἄρης.
... Him [Sarpedon] has ...
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How much time is a generation in the odyssey and Iliad?
Prompted by the question How old was Nestor is there any reference to how much Homer considered a generation to be?
I cannot seem to find any good reference that is reliable and sourced correctly, ...
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Examples of non-Homeric invisibility as clouds
Homer uses the trope of clouds of mist rendering a god or person unseen (even to people right next to them, in the daylight) a number of times throughout the Iliad and Odyssey. For example, in the ...
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Why does Clytemnestra kill Cassandra?
In Greek mythology King Agamemnon of Mycenae, leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War, returns home victorious after the War, having captured the Trojan princess Cassandra to be his slave.
However, ...
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Why is Dante’s Odysseus different from Homer’s?
In Canto XXVI of the Inferno, Dante encounters Odysseus and Diomedes. Odysseus account of his exploits after Troy differ from the more familiar story in Homer’s Odyssey. Notably, Dante’s Odysseus does ...
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Why does Eumaeus singles out the nymphs and Hermes in his offerings?
In Odyssey 14 Eumaeus the swineherd is the first person that meets Odysseus upon his return to Ithaca. Although he doesn't recognize his master, he offers him shelter and treats him to a feast:
Then ...
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Honor, cunning and realism of underhandedness in the Iliad
The heroes of the Iliad seem to be completely obsessed with honourable fighting, with Hector refusing to take sanctuary behind the walls due to that not being honourable (The Great Courses - Famous ...
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Why was Odysseus needed for killing the suitors in the Odyssey?
Is his kingdom so short on soldiers that the family can't deal with a few suitors?
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What did Odysseus and his men do to err Athena?
When Hermes arrives on Ogygia, she asks why he is visiting here:
Why have you come to see me, Hermes - honored, and ever welcome - for you do not visit me often?...
Retrieved, paragraph 7
Hermes ...
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Do gods know all other gods?
In the Odyssey, Hermes takes flight to Ogygia, Calypso's island, at Zeus's command to tell Calypso to let Odysseus go home. When he arrives Calypso recognizes him right away because:
the gods all ...
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Why did Zeus take half the goodness out of a man?
I found something online mentioning a passage from the Odyssey, Book XVII. I checked it against my own Odyssey translated by Samuel Butler. The passage holds true.
"...Servants never do their work ...
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What does Ulysses Pidytes of Percote mean?
I just opened my Iliad et Odyssey (Translated by Samuel Butler), and I saw this...
Polypoetes then killed Astyalus, Ulysses Pidytes of Percote, and Teucer Aretaon.
The Iliad, Book VI, page 98
This ...
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