Tell me, Muse, of that man, so ready at need, who wandered far and wide.
Source: The Odyssey, book 1 (Butcher/Lang translation)
Author
Greek · -800--700 · 10 quotes
Greek · -800–-700
10 quotes in our collection
Homer is the ancient Greek poet traditionally associated with the Iliad and the Odyssey, usually placed in the eighth century BCE, though exact birth and death years are unknown. For database purposes his dates are conventionally approximated here as 800-700 BCE. Homer matters because the epics attributed to him stand at the beginning of Western literature, shaping ideas of heroism, wrath, homecoming, fate, honor, and divine intervention. The Iliad centers on Achilles, war, mortality, and the cost of glory, while the Odyssey follows Odysseus through wandering, temptation, endurance, and return. Whether Homer was one poet, a name for a tradition, or the product of oral composition remains debated. The quoted wisdom linked to Homer carries the force of archaic epic: direct, memorable, and rooted in a world where human greatness is measured under suffering.
Common Themes
Collected Quotes
Tell me, Muse, of that man, so ready at need, who wandered far and wide.
Many were the men whose towns he saw and whose mind he learnt.
Many the woes he suffered in his heart upon the deep.
There is no more gracious or perfect delight than when a whole people makes merry.
This seems to me well-nigh the fairest thing in the world.
My evil company hath been my bane, and sleep thereto remorseless.