How was the poet Homer imagined by ancient Greeks? This book examines stories circulating between the sixth and fourth centuries BC about his birth, place of origin and name; the circumstances of his life - such as the story of his blindness - his relation to other poets, and his heirs. The aim is to explore the ancient reception of the Homeric poems, and to look at it in relation to modern representations of Homer, ancient and modern conceptions of authorship, and the 'Homeric Question'. The book's engaging and accessible style should make it attractive to a wide range of readers, including non-classicists, and all quotations from Greek are provided with an English translation.

Barbara Graziosi is currently Lecturer in Greek at the University of Reading. She was educated in Trieste, Oxford and Cambridge and in 1999-2000 held a Junior Research Fellowship at New College, Oxford. Her doctoral thesis, on which the present book is based, has been shortlisted for the Hellenic Foundation's Annual Prize for the best doctoral thesis.

Frontispiece; Preface; List of abbreviations of editions and works of reference; Introduction; 1. The birth of Homer; 2. Homer's name and his place of origin; 3. The date of Homer; 4. Blindness, poverty and closeness to the gods; 5. Homer's relationship to other poets; 6. The heirs of Homer; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index of passages; General index.