Quotes by Homer
Welcome to our collection of quotes by Homer. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Homer
Homer (Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος [hómɛːros], Hómēros) was an ancient Greek author and epic poet. He is the reputed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two epic poems that are the foundational works of ancient Greek literature. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential writers of all time.
The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Mycenaean Greek kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.
The Homeric Question—concerning by whom, when, where and under what circumstances the Iliad and Odyssey were composed—continues to be debated. Some scholars consider that the two works were written by different authors. It is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC.
The poems are in Homeric Greek, also known as Epic Greek, a literary language which shows a mixture of features of the Ionic and Aeolic dialects from different centuries; the predominant influence is Eastern Ionic. Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally. From antiquity until the present day, the influence of Homeric epic on Western civilization has been great, inspiring many of its most famous works of literature, music, art and film. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education; to Plato, Homer was simply the one who "has taught Greece" (ten Hellada pepaideuken).
Tell me, muse, of the of many resources who wandered far and wide after he sacked the holy citadel of Troy, and he saw the cities and learned the thoughts of many men, and on the sea he suffered in his heart many woes.
A generation of men is like a generation of leaves: the wind scatters some leaves upon the ground, while others the burgeoning wood brings forth -- and the season of spring comes on. So of men one generation springs forth and another ceases.
A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time.
Son, I know this seems like the biggest disappointment of your life, but trust me, there are going to be so many more. What you've got to remember is... Oh my God, 13 men in the field! Review it, review it, review it! Yes! Play stands!
It's okay, Marge. I learned my lesson. A mountain of sugar is too much for one man. That is why God dispenses it in those tiny packets and he lives on a plantation in Hawaii.
Marge, don't discourage the boy. Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals, except the weasel.
You know, Marge, that Bart is a little miracle -- his winning smile, his button nose, his fat little stomach, his face alight with wholesome mischief. He reminds me of me before the weight of the world crushed my spirit.
Oh, God gets your papers, but he just clicks delete without reading them, like email updates from Linkedln.
Oh, Marge, I can't stand it when you cry at dinner. The pork chops look traumatized, the mashed potatoes can't stand to watch, even the children seem upset.
Thank you, magical creatures of the mall! You have all taught me a Christmas message I'll never forget. The place to get drunk is at home.
Son, when you participate in sporting events, it's not whether you win or lose; it's how drunk you get.
I think Smithers picked me because of my motivational skills. Everyone says they have to work a lot harder when I'm around.
But strong of limb
And swift of foot misfortune is, and, far
Outstripping all, comes first to every land,
And there wreaks evil on mankind, which prayers
Do afterwards redress.
Ah how shameless -- the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone they say come all their miseries yes but they themselves with their own reckless ways compound their pains beyond their proper share.
And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it,
neither brave man nor coward, I tell you --
it's born with us the day that we are born.
That is the gods' work, spinning threads of death
through the lives of mortal men,
an all to make a song for those to come.
But the great leveler, Death: not even the gods
can defend a man, not even one they love, that day
when fate takes hold and lays him out at last.
Hear I the blatant appetite demand
Due sustenance, and with a voice that drowns
E'en all my suff'rings, till itself be fill'd.
Of men who have a sense of honor, more come through alive than are slain, but from those who flee comes neither glory nor any help.
This year I invested in pumpkins. They've been going up the whole month of October and I got a feeling they're going to peak right around January. Then bang! That's when I'll cash in.
She threw into the wine which they were drinking a drug which takes away grief and passion and brings forgetfulness of all ills.
And what if one of the gods does wreck me out on the wine-dark sea? I have a heart that is inured to suffering and I shall steel it to endure that too. For in my day I have had many bitter and painful experiences in war and on the stormy seas. So let this new disaster come. It only makes one more.
Must you have battle in your heart forever? The bloody toil of combat? Old contender, will you not yield to the immortal gods? That nightmare cannot die, being eternal evil itself -- horror, and pain, and chaos; there is no fighting her, no power can fight her. All that avails is flight.
Take courage, my heart: you have been through worse than this. Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this.
However, what is done is better left alone, though we resent it still, and we must curb our hearts perforce...as for my death, when Zeus and the other deathless gods appoint it, let it come.
How I wish that discord could be banished from the world of gods and men, and with it anger, insidious as trickling honey, anger that makes the wisest man flare up and spreads like smoke through his whole being.
Miserable mortals who, like leaves, at one moment flame with life, eating the produce of the land, and at another moment weakly perish.
To you, sedition, violence and fighting are the breath of life. What if you are a great soldier -- who made you so but God?
The internet wasn't created for mockery, it was supposed to help researchers at different universities share data sets. It was!
Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.
All men owe honor to the poets -- honor and awe; for they are dearest to the Muse who puts upon their lips the ways of life.
It is equally offensive to speed a guest who would like to stay and to detain one who is anxious to leave.
Which would you rather be, a conqueror in the Olympic games, or the crier that proclaims who are conquerors?
Life is not to be bought with heaps of gold;
Not all Apollo's Pythian treasures hold,
Or Troy once held, in peace and pride of sway,
Can bribe the poor possession of the day.
Still, we will let all this be a thing of the past, though it hurts us, and beat down by constraint the anger that rises inside us.
Now I am making an end of my anger. It does not become me, unrelentingly to rage on.
Prophet of evil,' he cried, 'never have you said a word to my advantage. It is always trouble that you revel in foretelling.
For when two Join in the same adventure, one perceives Before the other how they ought to act; While one alone, however prompt, resolves More tardily and with a weaker will.
Whoever among men who walk the Earth has seen these Mysteries is blessed, but whoever in uninitiated and has not received his share of the rite, he will not have the same lot as the others, once he is dead and dwells in the mould where the sun goes down.
O friends, be men; so act that none may feel Ashamed to meet the eyes of other men. Think each one of this children and his wife, His home, his parents, living yet and dead. For them, the absent ones, I supplicate, And bid you rally here, and scorn to fly.
You can't go wrong with cocktail weenies. They look as good as they taste. And they come in this delicious red sauce. It looks like ketchup, it tastes like ketchup, but brother, it ain't ketchup!
There is nothing more dread and more shameless than a woman who plans such deeds in her heart as the foul deed which she plotted when she contrived her husband's murder.
All the survivors of the war had reached their homes and so put the perils of battle and the sea behind them.
Be still, my heart; thou hast known worse than this. On that day when the cyclops, unrestrained in fury, devoured the mighty men of my company; but still thou didst endure till thy craft found a way for thee forth from out the cave, where thou thoughtest to die.
My hour at last has come;
Yet not ingloriously or passively
I die, but first will do some valiant deed,
Of which mankind shall hear in after time.
Noble and manly music invigorates the spirit, strengthens the wavering man, and incites him to great and worthy deeds.
The Wrath of Achilles is my theme, that fatal wrath which, in fulfillment of the will of Zeus, brought the Achaeans so much suffering and sent the gallant souls of many nobleman to Hades, leaving their bodies as carrion for the dogs and passing birds.
He had better beware our wrath, great man though he is. What is he doing in his fury but insulting senseless clay?
Union Rule 26: Every employee must win 'Worker of the Week' at least once, regardless of gross incompetence, obesity or rank odor.
The sun rose on the flawless brimming sea into a sky all brazen-all one brightening for gods immortal and for mortal men on plowlands kind with grain.
But age, the common enemy of mankind, has laid his hand upon you; would that it had fallen upon some other, and that you were still young.
This is the way I've always thought it should be. We've always blamed
ourselves, but I guess we know what cylinder wasn't firing!
There is no greater fame for a man than that which he wins with his footwork or the skill of his hands.
That is the god's work, spinning threads of death through the lives of mortal men, and all to make a song for those to come.
The rose Dawn might have found them weeping still had not grey-eyed Athena slowed the night when night was most profound, and held the Dawn under the Ocean of the East. That glossy team, Firebright and Daybright, the Dawn's horses that draw her heavenward for men- Athena stayed their harnessing.
I am a part of all that I have met. Yet, experience is an arch wherethro gleams that untravl'd world whose margin fades forever and forever when I move.
Among all men on the earth bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the muse has taught them songs and loves the race of bards.
And for yourself, may the gods grant you your heart's desire, a husband and a home, and the blessing of a harmonious life. For nothing is greater or finer than this, when a man and woman live together with one hear and mind, bringing joy to their friends and grief to their foes.
Never to be cast away are the gifts of the gods, magnificent, which they give of their own will, no man could have them for wanting them.
Men are so quick to blame the gods: they say that we devise their misery. But they themselves- in their depravity- design grief greater than the griefs that fate assigns.
Fear not, but be bold:
A decent boldness ever meets with friends,
succeeds, and e'en a stranger recommends.
Fate is the same for the man who holds back, the same if he fights hard. We are all held in a single honor, the brave with the weaklings. A man dies still if he has done nothing, as the one who has done much.
Insignificant mortals, who are as leaves are, and now flourish and grow warm with life, and feed on what the ground gives, but then again fade away and are dead.
When a woman says nothing's wrong, that means everything's wrong. And when a woman says everything's wrong, that means everything's wrong! And when a woman says something's not funny, you'd better not laugh your ass off!
The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother, and I call him Gamblor!
When I was seventeen
I drank some very good beer
I drank some very good beer I purchased
With a fake ID
My name was Brian McGee
I stayed up listening to Queen
When I was seventeen.
You know, the one with all the well meaning rules that don't work out in real life, uh, Christianity.
Old people don't need companionship. They need to be isolated and studied so it can be determined what nutrients they have that might be extracted for our personal use.
Quotes by Homer are featured in:
Courage Quotes
Friendship Quotes
Time Quotes
Words Of Wisdom Quotes
Wisdom Quotes
War Quotes