The Life of Homer Anonymous is a prose biography of the poet Homer composed by an unknown author in the 1st century BCE. It is one of several ancient Lives of Homer, representing a later Hellenistic compilation of legendary traditions about the poet's origins, travels, and death. It is distinct from biographies attributed to figures like Herodotus.
The work exemplifies the pseudepigraphical biographical genre that constructed a life for a figure lacking reliable historical information, often using local myths and etymological plays to explain elements within the Homeric epics. The primary work is the prose Life of Homer, classified as Life 6 in the standard collection of Homeric biographies.
This biography documents the ancient reception and legendary construction of Homer. It illustrates the methods of Hellenistic, particularly Alexandrian, scholarship and the cultural effort to personify the genius behind the canonical epics. While not a historical source, it documents the history of Homeric scholarship and the literary culture of the Hellenistic period.
Available Works
Also published as PDF.