Homer

Two epics. One name. Almost no secure biography.

Homer is the poet traditionally credited with the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient accounts gave him birthplaces, travels, and blindness; they do not give us a reliably documented life. The poems grew from a Greek tradition of oral storytelling, and scholars still debate how they reached their surviving form and whether one poet stands behind both.

The life stays out of reach. The angry soldier and the man trying to get home do not.