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Ancient accounts of Homer include numerous passages in which archaic and classicalGreek poets and prose authors mention or allude toHomer. In addition, they include the ten biographies of Homer, often referred to as theLives.

There are no known records directly dating Homer other than his writings of theOdyssey and theIliad. All accounts are based on tradition. The periodization hinted in written records comes fromHerodotus, who maintained thatHesiod and Homer lived no more than 400 years before his own time, therefore around 850 BC.^[1] Artemon ofClazomenae, anannalist, gaveArctinus of Miletus, a pupil of Homer, a birth date of 744 BC. It is assumed he lived between 750-700 BC.^{[clarification needed][2]}

There are ten extantLives of Homer. Eight of these are edited inGeorg Westermann'sVitarum Scriptores Graeci minores,^[3] including a narrative entitled theContest of Homer and Hesiod.^[4] The longest,Life of Homer, is written in theIonic dialect and claims to be the work of Herodotus, but this is spurious (seePseudo-Herodotus).^[5] It most likely belongs to the 2nd century AD, although the other Lives are of more recent origin.

TheLives preserve short poems and fragments of verse attributed to Homer, theEpigrams, which were once printed at the end of editions of Homer. They are numbered as they appear in Pseudo-Herodotus. These are easily recognized as popular rhymes, a form of folklore, and in most countries, treasured by the people as a kind ofproverb.

In the Homeric epigrams, the subject matter often covers the characteristics of particular localities, for example,Smyrna andCyme,^[6]Erythrae,^[7] andMount Ida;^[8] others relate to certain trades or occupations: potters,^[9] sailors, fishermen, goat herds, etc., suggesting that they are not the work of any one poet. That they were all ascribed to Homer suggests that they belong to a period in the history of the Ionian and Aeolian colonies when Homer was a name that drew to itself much ancient and popular verse.

The epigrams were the chief source from which theLives of Homer were derived. Epigram 4 mentions a blind poet, a native of AeolianSmyrna, through which flows the water of the sacredMeles. Here may be the source of the chief incident of the HerodoteanLife, the birth of Homer, named Son of the Meles to conceal a scandalous affair between his mother and an older man who had been appointed her guardian. The epithetAeolian implies high antiquity, inasmuch as according to Herodotus, Smyrna became Ionian not long before 688 BC. The Ionians had their own version of the story, which may have made Homer come out with the first Athenian colonists.^{[original research?]}

The same line of argument may be extended to theHymns and works of the so-calledCyclic poets, the lost early epics, some of which formed theEpic Cycle andTheban Cycle. Thus:

1. The hymn to the DelianApollo ends with an address of the poet to his audience. When any stranger comes and asks who the sweetest singer is, they are to answer with one voice, "The blind man that dwells in rockyChios; his songs deserve the prize for all time to come."Thucydides, who quotes this passage to show the ancient character of the Delian festival, seems to have no doubt about theHomeric authorship of the hymn. Many accounts say that he was from Smyrna and lived in Chios later in his life.^{[citation needed]}
2. TheMargites, a humorous poem known as a reputed work of Homer down to the time ofAristotle,^{[citation needed]} began with the words, "There came to Colophon an old man, a divine singer, servant of the Muses and Apollo." Hence the claim ofColophon to be the native city of Homer, a claim supported in the early times of Homeric learning by the Colophonian poet and grammarianAntimachus. TheSuda reports Homer being a Smyrnaean that was taken as captive to the Colophonians in war, hence the name Ὅμηρος, which in Greek means "captive". Homer's name originating from him being a captive is widely reported.^{[citation needed]}
3. The poem called theCypria was said to have been given by Homer to his son-in-lawStasinus of Cyprus as dowry. The connection withCyprus appears further in the predominance given in the poem toAphrodite.
4. TheLittle Iliad and thePhocais, according to thepseudo-Herodotean life, were composed by Homer when he lived atPhocaea with a certainThestorides, who carried them off to Chios and there gained fame by reciting them as his own. The name Thestorides occurs in Epigram 5.
5. A similar story was told about the poem called theCapture of Oechalia, the subject of which was one of the exploits ofHeracles. It passed under the name ofCreophylus of Samos, a friend or (as some said) a son-in-law of Homer, and was sometimes said to have been given to Creophylus by Homer in return for hospitality.
6. TheThebaid was confidently counted as the work of Homer.^{[citation needed]} As to theEpigoni, which carried on the Theban story, there was less certainty.

These indications render it probable that the stories connecting Homer with different cities and islands grew up after his poems had become known and famous, especially in the new and flourishing colonies of Aeolis and Ionia. The contention for Homer may have begun at a time when his real history was lost, and he had become a sort ofmythical figure, an anonymous hero, or apersonification of a great school of poetry.

A confirmation of this view from the negative side is furnished by the chief city among the Asiatic colonies of Greece,Miletus. There has so far been no legend that claims about a visit fromHomer toMiletus. Yet,Arctinus of Miletus was said to have been a disciple of Homer and was certainly one of the earliest and most considerable of the Cyclic poets. HisAethiopis was composed as a sequel to theIliad and the structure and general character of his poems show that he took theIliad as his model. Yet, in his case, there is no indication of disputed authorship which is the case with other Cyclic poems. Possibly,Arctinus was never so far forgotten that his poems became the subject of dispute.

• Homeridae
• Life of Homer (Pseudo-Herodotus)

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Homer".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

• Homeric scholarship
• Biographies of Homer

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