“'Tis man's to fight, but Heaven's to give success.”
Author detail
Ο Όμηρος είναι ο δημιουργός των ποιητικών έργων της Ιλιάδας και της Οδύσσειας, από τα πρώτα κείμενα της Ιστορικής περιόδου της αρχαίας Ελλάδας, γνωστών ως «Ομηρικά Έπη». Η Ιλιάδα αποτελείται από 15.693 στίχους και αναφέρεται στις τελευταίες πενήντα μία, αποφασιστικής σημασίας ημέρες του πολέμου της Τροίας, ο οποίος συνολικά διήρκεσε, σύμφωνα με τον μύθο, 10 χρόνια. Η Οδύσσεια αποτελείται από 12.110 στίχους και περιγράφει τον δεκαετή αγώνα του Οδυσσέα για τον νόστο (επιστροφή στην πατρίδα του Ιθάκη μετά την κατάληψη της Τροίας). Η γλώσσα των κειμένων είναι η ομηρική ελληνική, μια λογοτεχνική γλώσσα με ανάμειξη χαρακτηριστικών από την ιωνική και την αιολική διάλεκτο με κύρια επιρροή την ανατολική ιωνική διάλεκτο. Πολλοί ερευνητές πιστεύουν ότι αρχικά τα ποιήματα μεταδόθηκαν προφορικά. ---------- Homer (Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος) was an ancient Greek author and epic poet. He is the reputed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two epic poems that are the foundational works of ancient Greek literature. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education. From antiquity until the present day, the influence of Homeric epic on Western civilization has been great, inspiring many of its most famous works of literature, music, art and film. The poems are in Homeric Greek, also known as Epic Greek, a literary language which shows a mixture of features of the Ionic and Aeolic dialects from different centuries; the predominant influence is Eastern Ionic. Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally. The ancient Greeks generally believed that Homer was an historical individual, but modern scholars are skeptical: no reliable biographical information has been handed down from classical antiquity, and the poems themselves manifestly represent the culmination of many centuries of oral story-telling and a well-developed "formulaic" system of poetic composition. According to Martin West, "Homer" is "not the name of a historical poet, but a fictitious or constructed name."
Quotes
Showing 1-20 of 41
“'Tis man's to fight, but Heaven's to give success.”
“A decent boldness ever meets with friends.”
“It is the bold man who every time does best, at home or abroad.”
“There is satiety in all things, in sleep, and love-making, in the loveliness of singing and the innocent dance.”
“A sympathetic friend can be quite dear as a brother.”
“Two friends-two bodies with one soul inspired.”
“Achilles absent, was Achilles still.”
“Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing sooner than of war.”
“It is not right to exult over slain men.”
“…There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.”
“Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.”
“And empty words are evil.”
“The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, as it pleases him, for he can do all things.”
“Take courage, my heart: you have been through worse than this. Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this.”
“[I]t is the wine that leads me on, the wild wine that sets the wisest man to sing at the top of his lungs, laugh like a fool – it drives the man to dancing... it even tempts him to blurt out...”
“Reproach is infinite, and knows no end So voluble a weapon is the tongue; Wounded, we wound; and neither side can fail For every man has equal strength to rail.”
“Too many kings can ruin an army”
“How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!”
“Why so much grief for me? No man will hurl me down to Death, against my fate. And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it, neither brave man nor coward, I tell you - it’s born with us the day...”
“Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing, sooner than war.”