Homer's Writing

The writing of Homer were influential to the Greeks because they told a story. No other texts in the Western society have had such an impact as Homer's writing, the Iliad and the Odyssey. They both concern the great defining moment of the Greek society, the Trojan War. Whether or not this war occurred or occurred as the Greeks narrate it, it still gave a story line on how the Greeks lived. Through the writing's of Homer, the Greeks saw the Trojan War as the first moment in history when the Greeks came to together as one people with a common purpose. As the Greek idea of culture changed, so did their stories about the Trojan War.

Little is known about Homer's life except that he wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. Some scholars believed that he was born in Ionia in the ninth century B.C. The meaning of the name Homer is hostage. Both stories consist of twenty four books. Ancient Greeks not only learned about his writing but were also well educated by them.

There are two very important words portrayed in Homer's writing and they are arete and ergon. The idea arete is one of the strongest and clearest values of Homer's writing about the Greeks. The word arete means "virtue" and " being the best you can be." The importance of this word is that it implies that the Greeks saw their world as one in which each persons actions played an important role in life and how effective the person was to their world. The word ergon means good, hard, work. Without this a society cannot exist especially for the Greeks. Arete and ergon both intertwine with each other in the Greek culture shown in Homer's writing.

The Iliad and the Odyssey were the two great epic poems which said to have marked the beginning of the European cultural heritage. The writings of Homer help to tell us a little about Troy and the Greeks though the whole story is not true. The epic poems of Homer contain certain events and scenes which reflect and resemble the History of the Greeks. Homer's writing have a background to the Greek life and they tell us the significance of the Greeks. ( Freeman 45-48)

No one today is sure when the writing of Homer were set down and written. The writing of Homer reflected the times of the Ancient Greeks. The two epic poems show a knowledge of oversea settlements known to be in the Mycenaean era. These stories express the beginning of a growing identification between the Greeks and other people. These stories also show how the Greeks never reached unity of action. Or in other words it means they did not share much life together as a civilization. ( Bauer 352)

The Iliad and The Odyssey with their captivating stories and magnificent characters, have had a major impact on artists and writers today. Homer has had a major impact not only on how a person fits into the bigger picture, but on how to understand the bigger picture itself. The Ancient Greek writers have had an impact on providing a powerful model for the western cultures. Homer's writings have also had an amazing effect on Western literature. The cultural roots of Western Civilization are deep in the events of the Ancient Greeks. These writings have had a long powerful influence on many amazing western thinkers.

Bauer, Wise, Susan. The History of the Ancient World. New York: Norton & Company, Inc, 2007
Freeman, Charles. The Greek Achievement. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc, 1999