Greek · -800–-701
Homer stands as the foundational figure of Western literature, the blind bard whose epic poems defined the heroic tradition for all time. Ancient Greeks attributed to him the Iliad and the Odyssey, works that established the conventions of epic poetry and influenced virtually every subsequent work of Western literature. Whether Homer was a single historical person, a collective name for oral tradition, or a legendary figure remains debated, but the poems bearing his name shaped Greek education, Roman culture, and the entire Western literary canon. His characters—Achilles, Odysseus, Hector, Penelope—became archetypes that writers have reimagined for nearly three millennia.