Homer (8th century B.C.?)

Greek epic poet considered as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The first work composed in 15,537 lines and divided into 24 songs, recounts – close to four centuries after the facts – an episode from the Trojan war (or Ilion). The second, which consists of 12,263 lines and also 24 songs recounts the return of Ulysses (Odusseus) to his homeland of Ithaca at the end of the same war. Recited during festivals and taught to children, these two epics had a great influence in classical Greece and well beyond. They in reality constitute one of the major influences of European culture and literature.