Homer
Homer
Homeris best known as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He was believed by the ancient Greeks to have been the first and greatest of the epic poets. Author of the first known literature of Europe, he is central to the Western canon...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPoet
fighting men fire
Come, weave us a scheme so I can pay them back! Stand beside me, Athena, fire me with daring, fierce as the day we ripped Troy's glittering crown of towers down. Stand by me - furious now as then, my bright-eyed one - and I would fight three hundred men, great goddess, with you to brace me, comrade-in-arms in battle!
memories father grief
And overpowered by memory Both men gave way to grief. Priam wept freely For man - killing Hector, throbbing, crouching Before Achilles' feet as Achilles wept himself, Now for his father, now for Patroclus once again And their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house.
house rage-from-the-iliad forget
Nay if even in the house of Hades the dead forget their dead, yet will I even there be mindful of my dear comrade.
drinking heart sleep
These nights are endless, and a man can sleep through them, or he can enjoy listening to stories, and you have no need to go to bed before it is time. Too much sleep is only a bore. And of the others, any one whose heart and spirit urge him can go outside and sleep, and then, when the dawn shows, breakfast first, then go out to tend the swine of our master. But we two, sitting here in the shelter, eating and drinking, shall entertain each other remembering and retelling our sad sorrows. For afterwards a man who has suffered much and wandered much has pleasure out of his sorrows.
dream strong white
[B]ut it is only what happens, when they die, to all mortals. The sinews no longer hold the flesh and the bones together, and once the spirit has let the white bones, all the rest of the body is made subject to the fire's strong fury, but the soul flitters out like a dream and flies away.
thank-you travel guests
A guest never forgets the host who has treated him kindly.
men earth rage-from-the-iliad
There is nothing alive more agonized than man / of all that breathe and crawl across the earth.
winning men grieving
But you, Achilles,/ There is not a man in the world more blest than you--/ There never has been, never will be one./ Time was, when you were alive, we Argives/ honored you as a god, and now down here, I see/ You Lord it over the dead in all your power./ So grieve no more at dying, great Achilles.’ I reassured the ghost, but he broke out protesting,/ ‘No winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus!/ By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man--/ Some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive—than rule down here over all the breathless dead.
wise lying men
...he'll never lie - the man is far too wise.
men winning hands
There is no greater fame for a man than that which he wins with his footwork or the skill of his hands.
strong heart sight
Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this.
sympathy grateful tears
Accept these grateful tears...For thee they flow, for thee... That ever felt another's woe.
life kind deceiving
For love deceives the best of woman kind.
life hate too-much
Who love too much, hate in the like extreme.