DISCLAIMER This video was produced by a random student on the internet who loves reading, especially about ancient history and classics. The purpose of my videos is to make classics and ancient history interesting and accessible to everyone. It is important to highlight that I am not a professional or qualified educator, “expert”, historian or classicist. However, I ensure that all the information I use in my video scripts has been collated from numerous credible sources, which I will link in the description box if accessible online. I always work my hardest to deliver thoroughly researched and reliable information in my videos, but please always conduct additional, independent research to formulate a thorough understanding of any topic discussed. Additionally, I am dyslexic, and I will mispronounce words throughout this video, sometimes without realising it. This is not ill-intended or stemming from willful ignorance, and I do make the effort to research how to pronounce words before I start filming, but I often misread my phonetic spelling. In light of this, please do not rely on my video for an authoritative or reliable source of how to pronounce certain words.

Maybe the real Homer was all the Greeks we met along the way. Probably not though.

The variously attributed "Homer was not written by Homer, but by another man of that name" quote should always accompany this topic.

I love how engaged you are. I feel like I’m just having a chat with a nice stranger I met at the library.

We should be thankful that tik-tok didn't exist in the 19th century or he would have presented this theory while wearing bear ears and a button nose.

I had a professor who used to make a joke about this hypothesis. "Maybe a woman did write The Odyssey after all. No ancient man would ever make a story about a fellow man who was that horse-sh*t of a navigator." Some other students saw this joke as sexist, but it's clearly a joke about male hubris and sexism in ancient writing.

2000 years from now people are going to think some guy named “booktok” wrote an awful lot of books in 2022

I really enjoyed it. Please do more of these. My own view is that Homer was the one who finally wrote the stories down, but was part of a long tradition of poets. I base it on modern studies of poetry in oral based non-literate societies. The poem follows such a structure, and could have kept all the details of structure in doing so. It also has older words in it, interspersed. Much like if Shakespeare were suddenly to appear in your speech. That may suggest the ancient history was modernised. Also, plagiarism was not a big thing until recent times. Copying old masters was often part of becoming an artist. Blindness can also have degrees, and certain tricks can overcome certain types, such as only letting miniscule light hit the eyes. I really enjoyed your take on it and how you relay the sources. P.s. on the woman aspect, most art portrays arms of war incorrectly, right through the middle ages and back to Roman times. Artists would describe axes wrong. Also, until historically recently, women were seen as controlling the internal world, while men faced outside threats and got outside resources. The powerful women in the Iliad and Odyssey likely were accurate portrayals, and modern minds see the Trojan War as historical. Look at how women are portrayed in the Christian Gospels, all written by men. I like to think the female characters were just that amazing, and that Homer like a certain Roman who was exiled, simply really knew people well.

I love the idea that the Odyssey started as a cringe self-insert fanfic. What a proud tradition

*Thank you for making my morning.* My toddler kept me up all night, and I am struggling so hard right now. I saw your video and feel a little more accepting of this waking up business!

I had heard that the name Homer came from the idea that they weren't the original author, but the person who had written down the oral stories. They were similar to the Grimm brothers.

Have you considered doing voice over work? I would love some audiobooks with your voice.

I'd love to see a video about Penelope from the Odyssey. It might be a bit of a basic topic but she's my favourite female character in classical mythology.

If he became blind later in life it was probably through cataracts which are very common in sunny areas and as people get older.

The axe handles are absolutely hilarious. I'm reading Moby Dick right now and 19th century logic is .... wild sometimes.

You've got to admire the 19th century literary man's backhanded compliment to women which manages to keep them in their place more firmly than before.

The Iliad and Odyssey were both written by Francis Bacon, He knocked them out in between writing Shakespeare's plays.

I love binging your channel ❤️ thank you for these gifts!

I have just found out your channel and i'm really happy about it. It's simply marvelous the way you speak about the subjects, well supported, clear and entertaining. And i also loved your accent. Congratulations for the excellent work :)

Congratulations for the video. If i may suggest one idea a kind of series of videos on classical works with controversial ideas we didn't know. All the best

Fascinating, thanks for sharing this, always interesting hearing new perspectives on history and the classics! Love the content!

Coming in 2 years late, but WOW, thanks for the information! In return, I would recommend checking out "Homer's Secret Iliad" and "Homer's Secret Odyssey" (by Florence and Kenneth Wood). They put forth the extraordinary theory that both works (regardless of who wrote them) are in fact allegorical recordings of STELLAR observations. The Iliad details the precession of the zodiacal constellations through the ecliptic (the path of the sun by day and the constellations by night if I understand correctly), and The Odyssey details the phases of the moon. In other words, by ancient standards, The Iliad represented the (masculine) Sun and The Odyssey represented the (feminine) Moon. Without going into much detail - I highly recommend both "Homer's Secret..." books for their startling insights, and that The Odyssey's "feminine" perspective is natural to the work itself (although I'm by no means put off by the idea that it could've been written by a woman). On the surface, the Iliad is very appealing to masculine sensibilities - its about war, and the passions that drive men in general whether kings or servants - but on a deeper level, its about the various stars that make up the various constellations; major characters represent both single bright stars and entire constellations at times, while minor characters represent the dimmer stars around those figures (again, the details the Woods illuminate are mind-blowing). Likewise, on the surface, The Odyssey is perhaps more appealing to traditional feminine sensibilities - it's the romantic adventure of a man using every resource available (especially his mind) to find his way home to his beleagured wife - but on a deeper level, it's about the phases of the Moon, with each tale representing Odysseus' decline into darkness (the waning Moon), and his subsequent rise to overcome various challenges (the waxing Moon, and subsequent Full Moon). The Odyssey was said to be more popular among sailors, and if they were "initiated" into the deeper mysteries, it's not hard to see why. And finally, on the idea that Homer's works were part actual history, part examinations of human behavior in general, and part celestial allegory, it is FASCINATING to me that you said "Homer" may be a reference to blindness. What could be more fitting to the wealthy and literate elite than the revelation that deeper mysteries could be hidden in plain view, and only those with ears to hear or eyes to see could revel in those deeper levels of meaning. I love learning new things, and the origins of this legendary author were entirely new to me, so THANK YOU again

Yes! Super stoked for another history video 💕

This is why I love history and the classics. Full of mysteries that will never be 100% solved. Almost as if that’s the point of the study in the first place. Fascinating video. Thanks for sharing. Btw, I’m leaning towards that a lot of these classics were written by multiple authors and the authors names we know are really a type of publishing house of some sort. Just a thought.

I love listening to your videos well I'm painting. Your voice helps me focus. You cover topics that absolutely fascinate me.

Found your account during my deap dive on homer after hearing that he might not have been a real person. Love your account!!

I have read 'Homer's Daughter', and find it an interesting novel. Whether the hypothesis behind it is true or not, I cannot say; but I do believe that 'Homer' may cover a long tradition of bards reciting traditional stories, using well-honed tropes. I seem to recollect that some Hittite(?) tablets had been found, describing the attack on 'Wilusa' in phrases very similar to those of Homer. After more than 2 1/2 millennia, I doubt that we will ever find any definitive answer.

This is a wild guess but I could imagine that a name that translates to "blind" could easily be a forgotten term for "anonymous"? Like in a John Doe kind of way

i’m reading the odyssey right now for my classics class and this video is so great

Loved this! And the thumbnail is just chefs kiss 😂

Well done! And yes -- Martin West nailed it. So happy to hear him getting a shout-out here.

Great video! I think most text that old went through similar processes to what we'd call open source

I laughed so hard hearing our Lady Cinzia swear at the pronunciation of Melesigenes 😂😂❤

Love this and look forward to more ancient history videos.

Such a great video, I learned so much!

Here’s a idea that I once heard: The “Trojan Horse” was Helen of Troy herself (or more accurately-itself.) as the Greeks referred to themselves as “Hellenes”, it was the steady absorption of Greeks and Greek culture into Troy (hence “Hellen” of Troy) that made them vulnerable to a Greek attack. The Greeks were thus already inside the walls of Troy when the attack came. Again, only based on literary speculation, but an interesting idea.

Thank you for your hard work! Love your style and the sources!!

You briefly mentioned Robert Graves and his novel on Homer. Have you any views on him in general? Would be interested to hear your take on his mythic novels or even the execrable (in my humble opinion) White Goddess.

Being a Hesiodic rather than Homeric pagan, it warms the cockles of my heart to hear Hesiods works described as older. I don't speak German, but can still hear differences in German accents. Modern Germany has many reasons to have less differences in accent than Ancient Greece. So, it bugs me when people try to say that there is only one correct pronunciation for 4 ancient languages.

In the Greek school we are taught that the epics of the Iliad and the Odyssey come from oral traditions of various rhapsodes that somewhere in the eighth century before Christ the famous blind rhapsode made them into written words. As for the different style between the Iliad and the Odyssey, this is attributed to the age difference that Homer had when he wrote them, as he wrote the Iliad when he was young and the Odyssey when he was older.

i was taught about the oral tradition theory in high school, didnt know there were more out there as i haven't studied classics post secondary. interesting stuff !

"Homer? Who is Homer? My name is Gal Incognito."

Thank you for bringing this conversation into the present. Very authoritative!

This was super interesting! Great video 😊

I needed this video today, thank you for uploading! Will you be updating us on your PhD soon?

Thank you so much for sharing this fascinating information with us!! 🙆‍♀️

If Homer wasn't real, how could he have been in the Devine Comedy?

Yep, "the gods took his sight" is definitely the more interesting tale.

just came to find your page today and wow, that was an astonishing video. A massive amount of information explained in the smoothest, most inviting an engaging way possible. Being able to communicate like that, that's one hell of a gift. It's admirable.

Can someone please explain to me how I hated history in H.S. but the way it is done now in historical fictions, tv, books and movies, including this channel, I can't get enough. And am I the only one that thinks "The Lady of the Library" has a Bob Ross type of voice thats super relaxing and keeps you hanging on every word?

I was with you, albeit splitting a few hairs along the way, until the anonimity of the bard. From memory we have at least 2 bards named in the Odyssey which would seem out of place if their role in society was to be unknown singers of past deeds. Add to that Hesiod's victory and award at the funeral games of Amphidamas and even the incorporation of what seem to be almost self-contained poetic episodes in both the Iliad and the Odyssey and it seems there was a genuine interest in promoting and celebrating particularly skilled bards.

"...this fking name..." Haven't heard anyone swear like that since I was in court.

Robert Graves had a lot of very strange ideas about Ancient Greece. Look at the scholarly reaction to his version of The Greek Myths for example

Would really like your take on "The Bedside Odyssey", especially as it's attributed to Homer _and Associates._

This gave me so much joy

Very interesting discussion, Cinzia, and well very well researched. I wasn't acquinted with the fact that some people ascribe Homer to be femine and I like how you frame this into the discussion of homer being multiple or one and the same author! Very glad yo have you challenge my brain again this year! ;)

Loved this video!! So interesting.

Homer was a compilation. The Iliad and the Odyssey were passed down orally for generations. That’s the reason for the alliteration in and the cadence of the Ancient Greek. It helped the storyteller to remember it correctly.

I find the idea that he lived in the seventh century BCE, not the eighth century BCE, by far the most convincing conclusion. Pottery depiction scenes from the Iliad only appear from the late seventh century onwards, even though scenes of the Trojan War in general go back to the early part of the seventh century. That indicates that the Iliad wasn't written until probably after the middle of that century.

Also see Caroline Alexander's excellent translation of the Iliad (2016) for more on Homer and whether the Iliad was written (yes, it was).

Based on my reading of the name in Greek, I believe the name is pronounced: meh-leh-see-gen-ACE with the "g" being a hard "g" like in the word game. So the word would be weighted toward the back with the emphasis placed on the last syllable, which would sound like "ACE" or perhaps "ICE" depending on the ancient dialect. :)

Love this content! Good to hear from you again, I hope you're doing okay. ❤

I enjoy your videos because you go into such detail which makes them easier to understand.

Why is the notion that gay men are not masculine? Rock Hudson was quite well known for being masculine. Many men in Hudson's era aspired to be as "manly" as Rock Hudson. Though not known outside of Hollywood Rock Hudson was quite well known for being gay inside Hollywood. The idea that a gay man can't be masculine or is, by default, in touch with his feminine side is just wrong. If you see a masculine gay man you will likely just conclude that he is straight. The gender you identify with and your sexual orientation are two very separate things.

This was so interesting, your videos are so informative

Great video! Love the classics videos

As a greek who has readen the odessy many times i know that there are a lot of theories but homer that was a man and blind is the more logistical anser because if a woman wrote it she whouldn't have putten so many woman falling in love with odessyes more like the opsisset whould happend and at the and odessyes whould have to leave them. also we know homer was blind because he didn't explain diferent things only normal things that you whould see in a normal day he explained how they look for an exampel when hermes goes to the island that calepso was on.Awsome video btw.

This was fascinating. Thank you so much.

If we all read more classic literature, I'm sure we'd have a better world....as much as I love classic movies, you can not beat a good book! 🥰😍😎

Dubois i love your works, but how's the probability that Homer's description of a man using the axe wrong indicates that the author is female overlap's the probability that men were handling axe's differently than we do today or even a different type of axes ! Even if the oral poet or initial ancient author was a woman (without knowledge of the ancient classicists of the golden age of Athens) i think the vers would have been simply corrected or put on in correspondance to the way they performe such activities, hince the fact that the first unified copy of the Odyssey was not assembled until the first century C.E in the library of Alexandria (where certain educated and remarkable women have worked, which also could mean it was simply an innocent mistake on their part) ! Thank you !

That’s an interesting theory that I’ve never heard before.

The video: Super informative, well-researched and structured. My middle-school brain: "Lesbian dialect! You mean like pillow princess?"

the you, clear concise and well researched

What a fascinating video, I really enjoyed this!

to be honest i came to this video with a preconceived notion that this would been a weird form of whinging and im always up to hearing diff veiw so i can arguing with in silence to myself lol i hope you dont take this wrong. this is wicked thoughful and a well reasoned break down, its refreshing, seeing how you go through your thoughts and own reading/reaserch you actively care i find that beauitful. i hope this doesnt found you thinking of me in a negative way. much love, from another stranger/wirdo on the internet.

I maintain that Homer's epics really written by Christine Marlowe.

I LOVE, and think it's so funny 😂, that this guy and his theory are "just" one more evidence of the inherent desire/ hability that humans have... To FanFiction about ANYTHING, ANYWHERE, AT ANYTIME 🤣🤣🤣 And he even inspired others to develop even more fanfics about it 😂😂😂

I Love this kind of content:) thanks

When you get your classics degree, they teach you that what we read now is a conglomeration/synthesis of hundreds of different written versions of the odyssey/Iliad (Keeping the most common parts etc). It’s from this process we get the current academically accepted view that these stories came from story telling ‘festivals’ (originating in Athens, but spread most everywhere in Greece). Homer means, essentially, (plural) Anonymous.

Such an interesting video! Thank you ⚡💗

Could you comment on the Trojan Cycle/Epic Cycle and why all the other epics besides the Iliad and the Odyssey are lost except for fragments? Also what the relative date for the other epics were, since I don't think they're all attributed to Homer.

Who is saying that the epics were written down at 800 BCE, when in the Iliad there is mantion of a folding tablet and a copper stylus used to write and convey messages. Linear B mays have been the language of acountants, the epics have been written with the attic alphabet in all the Greek dialects,

Homer is a yellow dude from Springfield

As per the Oracle of Delphi - the most authoritative information center of the ancient Greek world: “He is from Ithaca, Telemachus is his father and Epikaste is his mother, who bore of all the mortals the most wise man. He was born enlightened and will bring knowledge to mortals.". "Ἕδος δ' Ἰθακησίος ἐστίν, Τηλέμαχος δὲ πατὴρ καὶ Νεστορέη Ἐπικάστη μήτηρ, ἥ μιν ἔτικτε βροτῶν πολὺ πάνσοφον ἄνδρα. Οὗτος ἐγεννήθη φάος τ' ἐς ἀνθρώπους ἤγειρε." Telemachus: The son of Odysseus Epikaste: The youngest daughter of Nestor

Have you considered doing a video on Helen? you did a lot on Heracles. Obviously this would need more research but still xD

Remarkably pleasant, and engaging.

So the Spartans considered themselves descended from Herakles? I remember hearing somewhere that they mostly went around naked with just a single cloak, like Heracles with his lion skin. I wonder if they were consciously trying to imitate Herakles?

Cinzia, you should start a book club xx

Would love more videos on the evidence/arguments for if historical figures existed/were who we think they were

Given the statement "Homer was a blind, illiterate man" there are historians who would dispute every single word, with the possible exception of "was".

I think “Homer” was several people and I definitely agree with Graves and others that sections of the Oddessey that involve Circe and Nausica were written by a woman. Ulysses has to talk about all the princesses he met in hades, Circe turning the men into pigs at the table before Ulysses overwhelms her is TOTALLY a romance novel trope - Ulysses was all tied up when so he couldn’t flirt with all those “mean girl” sirens who were too stupid to know how to cook for men… totally written by women.

Thank you, this is really interesting 💕

I am glad you don't know how to use an axe. That means you don't have an axe to grind. Thanks for your thoughtful intelligent videos.

I love your channel sooo much

Far from plain. This was sooo interesting.

I like the theory that it could've of been Odysseus himself that was the original teller of such tales.

The works of the great poet, Homer, are filled with words that not only survive in Albanian, but continue to be used. From Homer you can get not only words, but also phrases that possess all the signs of a typical Albanian expression. If someone were to interpret Homer from the Albanian language perspective, much light would be shed on the works of that famous poet. Between Homeric and Albanian sentences there is a striking resemblance in expression, phraseology and sentence structure. A study of this nature would help interpret Homer, since the Albanian language is older than that of Greece (Science Magazine 2023), much can be learned about the influence of this [Albanian] on Homeric and later Greek. Title: Unconquerable Albania Author : Christ Anton Lepon Publisher: Chicago, Albanian Liberation Committee, 1944

Could you please do a show on the plausibility of the account of the Achaemenid invasion of Greece, and the lack of archeological evidence of it.

Any Greeks here? How do you pronounce Homer? Like the Simpsons character as in this video? I always thought Homér to be correct (which is silly) now I am just curious.

I’ve heard some people say recently that the Dorian invasion may never have happened. What are your thoughts?