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INTRODUCTION

uses the term apparently to describe those devoted to Homeric poetry without any reference to the Chian clan, and the word is similarly used by Plato.

As for the name “Homer” itself, it is most naturally taken as that of a real individual—a poet to whom, by the middle of the sixth century B.C. B.C. stands for "Before Christ," marking the years before the start of the common era., the great mass of epic poetry which survived from the early age of Greece had come to be attributed; although as time went on, all poems except the Iliad and Odyssey were rejected, and in later antiquity there were those who referred these to separate authors. The earliest author to mention Homer is Callinus of Ephesus (about 660 B.C.) and the earliest quotation from the Homeric poems is found in Simonides of Amorgos, of the same date, unless it is possibly to be attributed to the later Simonides of Ceos (about 480 B.C.). Modern scholars have, however, made many attempts—all unconvincing—to interpret the word “Homer” in other ways than as the name of an actual person. The word itself means “hostage.” original: "homeros" (ὅμηρος), meaning a person given or held as security. It has been thought that the Homeridae Literally "Sons of Homer," a guild of performers who claimed descent from the poet. may have been “sons of hostages”—not trusted to fight but allowed to serve as custodians of traditional poetry—and that “Homer” is merely their imaginary ancestor; others, seeking a different etymology The study of the origins and historical development of words. for the word,