I used to think this guy was really fucking old and basically the beginning of history, but he's actually around the midpoint. Even Greek history is about 1000 years older than him. It's crazy to think how long humans have been around and doing the same things.
Homer may not have existed.One suspicious detail is his alleged name, which may in fact have a semitic etymology.A Greek etymology of Ὅμηρος (Hómēros) is ὅμηρος (hómēros) "pledge, surety, hostage" which is a bit odd.Alternatively, we can compare the root Ὅμηρ (Hómēr) to the Hebrew/Semitic verb root אמר (ʾmr) "to speak". In the participle, this becomes אֹמֵר (ʾōmēr) "speaking; a speaker". With the definite article הַ־ (ha-) this becomes הַאֹמֵר (haʾōmēr) "the speaker". The glottal stop א (ʾ) is a weak consonant which is often elided, and Greek doesn't have a glottal stop. So the process haʾōmēr > hōmēr would be expected in that environment.Then the result is Ὅμηρ- (Hómēr-) means "the speaker; the reciter" which is an appropriate description of someone transmitting poems orally, but since this is a title it means the actual poet was anonymous and there is less certainty about the fact that only one reciter was called by this title.
>>16884485Brown Wordcel slop
>>16884485>Hey goy, this famous Greek person didn't exist and if they did, they were actually gay or a woman
>>16884543I should have elaborated a bit more. One problem is there was actually a group of people called the Ὁμηρίδαι (Homeridai) who have been variously interpreted as a family, a clan, or even just a professional lineage. Their existence is more certain than Homer.So a reasonable question to ask is were there multiple homers? Was it just a title of various individuals hailing from a group of bards?Another thing to consider is what if Ὁμηρ- (Hómēr-) wasn't even originally used in the sense of a person? Remember that the basic meaning of ʾōmēr is "speaking", so this could have been the label for the stories themselves used in the sense "the sayings, the sagas".https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeridaehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeric_Question>In a similar vein, the word "Homer" may simply be a carryover from the Mediterranean seafarers' vocabulary adoption of the Semitic word base ’MR, which means "say" or "tell". "Homer" may simply be the Mediterranean version of "saga". Pseudo-Plutarch suggests that the name comes from a word meaning "to follow" and another meaning "blind".[17] Other sources connect Homer's name with Smyrna for several etymological reasons.[18]
>>16884359he looks like squidward for some reason
>>16884359The difference is that his works are what founded the canon which came after. Plato cites him in his dialogue and in turn Aristotle refutes Plato. The entire western world is a long line of books leading back to Homer, its founder. Everything which came before him is just random, fragmented crap not really important to anything.
