Homer

5 Stories

Homer Wasn't 'a Person': Historian

Iliad , Odyssey were works of a culture, not a man: Adam Nicolson

(Newser) - When we think of The Iliad and The Odyssey, we shouldn't give credit to a single man, says a historian: "It's a mistake to think of Homer as a person," historian Adam Nicolson tells National Geographic . "Homer is an 'it.' A tradition. An...

Mystery in Centuries-Old Copy of Odyssey Solved

Italian computer engineer claims $1K prize

(Newser) - An Italian computer engineer has produced fresh insight into Homer's The Odyssey—or, more specifically, one long-intriguing copy of it. In 2007, the University of Chicago Library was given a copy of the book dating to 1504. But alongside about 20 of the pages making up Book 11 were...

Scientists: We've Got Ulysses' Palace
 Scientists: We've 
 Got Ulysses' Palace 
ERGO, 'ODYSSEY' NONFICTION?
Aug 25, 2010 9:46 AM CDT

Scientists: We've Got Ulysses' Palace

Greeks claim to have found legendary king's home

(Newser) - The legendary Greek king Odysseus—known as Ulysses to the Romans—really existed, according to archeologists who say they've found his palace on the island of Ithaca in the Ionian Sea. The three-story, 8th-century BC structure the team has unearthed comes from the right era and "fits like a...

10 Books to Pass Up With Confidence
10 Books to Pass Up
With Confidence
Sep 20, 2008 5:27 PM CDT

10 Books to Pass Up With Confidence

Richard Wilson saves us all a bunch of time and effort with a not-reading list

(Newser) - Forget the coma-inducing titles that lit lovers keep telling you to read, Richard Wilson writes in his book, Can’t Be Arsed: 101 Things Not to Do Before You Die. He lists the top 10 clunkers in the Daily Telegraph:
  • Ulysses, James Joyce: notoriously hard, so why bother?
  • Lord
...

Astronomers Trace Homer's Wandering Hero

Experts tie Odysseus' return to Ithaca with real eclipse in 1178

(Newser) - Homer's Odyssey is 2,700 years old, and the events it describes happened centuries earlier. But two scientists claim in a new paper that they've traced one line in the epic poem—a possible reference to an eclipse—to a real astronomical event. Classicists might take issue, writes the New ...

5 Stories