Homer

The poems atributed to Homer are primarily the two long epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Modern research has shown that these were originally composed without the aid of writing. The poet composing verse orally relied on an elaborate equipment of stock-phrases or 'formulars', this technique took many generations to deevelop. It is believed that these poems were composed in something like their present form within the period 750 to 650 B.C. They were finally put down into writing in Athens in around the 6 century B.C., when the Panhellenic festival was reformed to include competitions in receiting Homeric verse. Some items of the poem come from earlier dates, indeed, the poems contain a few recollections of artifacts used in the late bronze age.

There are serveral other poems refered to in antiquity that were attributed to Homer. Among these were a number of shorter epics, telling the reminaing episodes from the Trojan cycle of myth and the legends of Thebes and Argos. These epics have been lost except for quotations and summaries. But a number of Homeric hymns, each praising a god, have been preserved. Like the shorter epics, these were probably composed later than the Iliad and the Odyssey, but their date is uncertain.

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