Homer

Homer (Greek: Ὅμηρος Hómēros) is the name given to the supposed author of the early Greek poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is now generally believed that they were composed by illiterate aoidoi (rhapsodes) in an oral tradition in the 8th or 7th century BC, but it is a matter of debate among scholars whether a single aoidos is largely responsible for the poems as they stand. The Emperor Hadrian asked the Oracle at Delphi who Homer really was, and she said that he was Ithacan, the son of Epikaste and Telemachus, from the Odyssey. The name Homer is nevertheless often used, as a convention, by those who do not believe in singular authorship of the Homeric poems. Homer's works begin the Western Canon and are universally praised for their poetic genius. By convention, the compositions are also often taken to initiate the period of Classical Antiquity.