When were these epic works composed?
Grave at MycenaeOnce again we find a question only answerable to some degree, with little definite accuracy. Tradition, as was stated in the last section, denotes the 12 century B.C.E. as to the time frame of Homer's existence. However archaeological discoveries in the late 19th century and 20th century have opened our eyes to other possible dates for Homer's life.

More archaelogical evidence has recently revealed the possibility that Homer wrote much later than the 12 century B.C.E. Many scholars now believe that Homer was an Ionian of the 8th or 9th century B.C.E., which would place his writings also more than 3 centuries after the Trojan War, adding to the belief that Homer composed the Iliad and Odyssey from a large array of oral poetry that he had learned and new that had been passed down from generations upon generations, and he was simply the artifice of their being put into writing. However simple that task may have been, figuring out what exactly happened now is not so simple, nor either is the complexity of Homer's writings anything to be taken lightly or for granted. The author of these works shows their awesome ability to compose deep and intricate literature at a time when the majority of people in Greece didn't even know how to write.

 
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