Editing Homer (section)

=== Contemporary ===
Most contemporary scholars, although they disagree on other questions about the genesis of the poems, agree that the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' were not produced by the same author, based on "the many differences of narrative manner, theology, ethics, vocabulary, and geographical perspective, and by the apparently imitative character of certain passages of the ''Odyssey'' in relation to the ''Iliad''".<ref>{{cite journal |last=West |first=Martin Litchfield |date=1999 |title=The Invention of Homer |jstor=639863 |journal=[[Classical Quarterly]] |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=364–382 |doi=10.1093/cq/49.2.364 |issn=0009-8388}}</ref><ref>{{harvc|last=West|first=Martin Litchfield|chapter=Homeric Question|in=Finkelberg|year=2012}} {{doi|10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe0605}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Latacz |first1=Joachim |last2=Bierl |first2=Anton |last3=Olson |first3=S. Douglas |title="New Trends in Homeric Scholarship" in Homer's Iliad: The Basel Commentary |date=2015 |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |isbn=978-1614517375 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OIXeoQEACAAJ}}</ref><ref name="West2011">{{cite journal |last=West |first=Martin Litchfield |date=December 2011 |title=The Homeric Question Today |journal=[[Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society]] |volume=155 |issue=4 |pages=383–393 |jstor=23208780}}</ref> Nearly all scholars agree that the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' are unified poems, in that each poem shows a clear overall design and that they are not merely strung together from unrelated songs.<ref name="West2011"/> It is also generally agreed that each poem was composed mostly by a single author, who probably relied heavily on older oral traditions.<ref name="West2011"/> Nearly all scholars agree that the ''Doloneia'' in Book X of the ''Iliad'' is not part of the original poem, but rather a later insertion by a different poet.<ref name="West2011"/>

Some ancient scholars believed Homer to have been an eyewitness to the [[Trojan War]]; others thought he had lived up to 500 years afterwards.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Saïd |first1=Suzanne |title=Homer and the Odyssey |date=2011 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0199542840 |pages=14–17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=78--kADZigAC&pg=PA14 |language=en}}</ref> Contemporary scholars continue to debate the date of the poems.<ref name="Graziosi2002"/><ref name="Fowler2004"/><ref name="West2011"/> A long history of oral transmission lies behind the composition of the poems, complicating the search for a precise date.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burgess |first1=Jonathan S. |title=The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle |date=2003 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |isbn=978-0801874819 |pages=49–53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bEYXqRmYkx0C&pg=PA49 |language=en}}</ref> At one extreme, [[Richard Janko]] has proposed a date for both poems to the eighth century BC based on linguistic analysis and statistics.<ref name="Graziosi2002">{{harvnb|Graziosi|2002|pages=90–92}}</ref><ref name="Fowler2004">{{harvnb|Fowler|2004|pages=220–232}}</ref> [[Barry B. Powell]] dates the composition of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' to sometime between 800 and 750 BC, based on the statement from [[Herodotus]], who lived in the late fifth century BC, that Homer lived four hundred years before his own time "and not more" ({{lang|grc|καὶ οὐ πλέοσι}}) and on the fact that the poems do not mention [[hoplite]] battle tactics, [[Burial|inhumation]], or literacy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Powell |first=Barry B. |date=1996 |title=Homer and the Origins of the Greek Alphabet |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eZGXGR-S_BQC |location=Cambridge, England |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-58907-9 |pages=217–222}}</ref>

[[Martin Litchfield West]] has argued that the ''Iliad'' echoes the poetry of [[Hesiod]] and that it must have been composed around 660–650 BC at the earliest, with the ''Odyssey'' up to a generation later.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Jonathan M. |title=Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture |date=2002 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=978-0226313290 |pages=235–236 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jJBh7BjUlAMC&pg=PA235 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{harvc|last=West|first=Martin L.|author-link=Martin Litchfield West|chapter=Date of Homer|in=Finkelberg|year=2012}} {{doi|10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe0330}}</ref><ref name="West2011"/> He also interprets passages in the ''Iliad'' as showing knowledge of historical events that occurred in the ancient Near East during the middle of the seventh century BC, including the destruction of [[Babylon]] by [[Sennacherib]] in 689 BC and the [[Sack of Thebes]] by [[Ashurbanipal]] in 664/663 BC.<ref name="West2011"/> At the other extreme, a few American scholars such as [[Gregory Nagy]] see "Homer" as a continually evolving tradition, which grew much more stable as the tradition progressed, but which did not fully cease to continue changing and evolving until as late as the middle of the second century BC.<ref name="Graziosi2002"/><ref name="Fowler2004"/><ref name="West2011"/>

"'Homer" is a name of unknown etymological origin, around which many theories were erected in antiquity. One such linkage was to the Greek {{lang|grc|ὅμηρος}} ({{Transliteration|grc|hómēros}} {{gloss|hostage}} or {{gloss|surety}}). The explanations suggested by modern scholars tend to mirror their position on the overall Homeric Question. Nagy interprets it as "he who fits (the song) together". West has advanced both possible Greek and Phoenician etymologies.{{sfn|Graziosi|2002|pages=51–89}}<ref name="east_face_622">{{cite book |first=Martin Litchfield |last=West |title=The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth |publisher=[[Oxford University Press|Clarendon Press]] |location=Oxford |date=1997 |page=622}}</ref>