What do Homer's stories mean?

Answer 1

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey appear likely to have been written, in something like the form we now have, in the last half of the eighth century BCE. However, the first written versions that we have any evidence for were produced in Athens in the sixth century BCE. The stories show evidence of having been handed down orally from earlier times. Homer, if such a person existed, could have been the author who first wrote the existing stories down.

They reflect several historical periods, in layers that scholars can only approximately distinguish. The legend itself belongs at the end of the first stage of ancient Greek history, the Mycenaean period. The Mycenaean civilisation developed around 2000 BCE, reached its peak at about 1600 BCE and continued until around 1200 BCE.

The whole Iliad and Odyssey hinge on a beauty pageant among three vain goddesses, Hera, Athene and Aphrodite, who sought the title of the most beautiful among the gods.

The legendary events began when Paris awarded the prize to Aphrodite and ran off with Helen, leading to the Trojan War and the subsequent wanderings of Odysseus.

Plato later argued that Homer should be censured for his disrespectful treatment of the gods, because he portrayed them with values and foibles similar to those of humans.