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Once upon a very long time ago in the town of Smyrna in Asia Minor, there lived an impoverished orphan girl by the name of Critheis. This poor girl became pregnant out of wedlock, and left Asia Minor and settled at a place near the River Meles, in Greece, where she gave birth to a son who she named Melesigenes because, as she said, 'he was born near the River Meles'. Critheis later returned to Smyrna where she became housekeeper to a man named Phemius, a literature and music teacher, whom she later married. Phemius took to his stepson as if he was his own, and every day gave him lessons in music and the written word. Because of this extra tuition, young Melesigenes excelled at school, and, on the death of his stepfather was appointed to run it. He was so successful that he gained the status of a local celebrity. Later he became friendly with Mentes, a wealthy traveller from Leukas. The two of them set off on a tour of Italy, but, when they reached Ithaca, Melesigenes caught an eye infection that left him partially blind. Mentes, wishing to continue his tour, left him in the care of a doctor called Mentor. Now Mentor was a bit of a literary scholar and knew all about the legendary exploits of Odysseus and the Trojan War, and Melesigenes, being a good listener, took in every detail of the tales the good doctor related to him. Mentor could not find a cure for the blindness, so Melesigenes decided that he would try to get back to Smyrna before his eyesight failed completely. But by the time he reached Colophon in Asia Minor he was totally blind. Some kind person helped him for the rest of the journey, and, once back in Smyrna, he resolved to devote himself to poetry. Not having any financial support whatever, he set out to live the life of a wandering poet. His wanderings brought him to a place called Neon Teichos (or New Walls) where he managed to earn a meagre living by reciting verse. At another town, Cumae, he asked, nay begged, the local council to support him for his poetry recitals, but one local dignitary said that if they fed every blind man who came along, the city would soon be overrun with vagrants. The council decided against Melesigenes, so once more he took up his wandering. He travelled from town to town for many years until he finally arrived at a town called Chios, where he was lucky to get a job teaching the children of a rich man. He became very popular in the town, so popular that, later, the townfolk claimed that he had been born there. The tales of this blind man's wisdom spread far and wide, reaching as far as Greece. So famous did he become that, when he visited the island of Samos, he was regarded almost as a god and was asked to take part in their religious festivals. Feeling that he could not accede to their wishes, he left Samos bound for Athens, but he had only got as far as the island of Ios when he became seriously ill, and died. After his death, stories of this legendary poet spread throughout Greece, Italy and as far as Spain, and the poets of these countries started to recite his poems. So famous did he become that people stopped using his name and merely referred to him as 'the blind one' - or in Greek, Homer. This then, is the story of Homer as told by the Greek historian Herodotus. But while Herodotus has been admired for his charming narrative, he has been criticized for his incredulity and his ability and eagerness to embroider the truth as and when he felt fit, and most, if not all, historians regard his biography of Homer as a work of complete speculation based on legends and figments of his imagination. In fact, historians have struggled for a long time trying to answer the 'Homeric Question' - who was Homer, when and where was he born, where did he live and die, did he write the Iliad and the Odyssey, was he a man or a woman or even a syndicate? One person who had a go at a solution was Samuel Butler. He read and re-read the Odyssey, and was struck by the fact that the portrayal of the temptress Circe had more feeling than the description of any of the mere males. Also, he noticed, that when male skills such as seamanship were described, the author had got it all wrong. Rudders are not found at the front of ships. And you cannot cut seasoned timber from a growing tree, as any man (or almost any man) could tell you. He also found plenty of other discrepancies in like vein. So, Butler reasoned, Homer was a woman, and even went so far as to name her as Princess Nausicaa who lived with her father King Alcinous and mother Queen Arete in the town of Trapani on the west coast of the island of Scheria, now called Cyprus. The book which Butler wrote on the subject, 'The Authoress of the Odyssey' has been widely ignored by scholars. Another, and maybe a bit tongue-in-cheek hypothesis is that of a British scholar who suggested that if Homer's name is spelt backwards in Hebrew, it would be just another form of 'Solomon'. Thus the scholar attributed the poems to the Hebrew king. Some of the experts suggest that the two books were written by different authors. The Iliad is a story of war, while the Odyssey is an adventure story. They are also written in different styles and use different vocabularies. But then, the 'James Bond' stories and Chitty Chitty-Bang-Bang were written by the same author, and you can't get stories more different than those. Where did Homer live? Traditionally it is said that he lived around the era of the Trojan War, in an Ionic settlement such as Chios or Smyrna, and may have made his living as a court singer and story teller, just like Phemius in the Odyssey. The truth is that, like virtually every other aspect of Homer's life, nobody can prove anything. When were these epic tales composed? This is another difficult question to answer. Tradition says Homer lived in the 12th century BC, about the time of the Trojan Wars. But 19th and 20th century archaeological evidence suggests that the stories were written three hundred or even four hundred years later. This means that Homer must have known of them from an array of oral poetry that had been passed down from generation to generation, and all he did was write them down. Maybe Herodotus was right about that. And if that, maybe the rest. Who knows. Who was Homer? Where did he live? And when? Some people seem to think that questions like these are important; modern scholars have been poring over them for years, diligently looking for theories and answers without finding the truth. My question is somewhat different; does it really matter? Surely it is sufficient that we have these wonderful and extremely old works to read whenever we wish. Bill Hutchings |
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page last updated 1 JUNE 2001 |
