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
war world toil
Beware the toils of war ... the mesh of the huge dragnet sweeping up the world.
death song men
That is the gods' work, spinning threads of death through the lives of mortal men, an all to make a song for those to come.
peace war fighting
To speak his thoughts is every freeman's right, in peace and war, in council and in fight.
distinguished
Always to be best, and distinguished above the rest.
journey rewards
The journey is its own reward.
wise wine laughing
Wine lead to folly, making even the wise to laugh immoderately, to dance, and to utter what had better have been kept silent.
wealth praise eternal
Base wealth preferring to eternal praise.
travel rivers rushing
One who journeying Along a way he knows not, having crossed A place of drear extent, before him sees A river rushing swiftly toward the deep, And all its tossing current white with foam, And stops and turns, and measures back his way.
calm familiar seasons
No season now for calm, familiar talk.
hate i-hate tales
I hate To tell again a tale once fully told.
war men hands
The god of war is impartial: he hands out death to the man who hands out death.
battle cures mere
We battle on in words, as always, mere words, and what's the cure? We cannot find a thing.
tales hard
The wordy tale, once told, were hard to tell again.
hunger dies
Most grievous of all deaths it is to die of hunger.