What is certain is that
these poems are very old, probably of the ninth century. The Iliad was
composed in Asia Minor and is perhaps the result of the union of two
poems--one dedicated to the combats of the Trojans, and the other to
the adventures of Achilles. The Odyssey appears to be the work of one
author; but it cannot be affirmed that it is of the same author as the
Iliad.
=The Greeks at the Time of Homer.=--We are not able to go back very
far in the history of the Greeks; the Homeric poems are their oldest
historical document. When these were composed, about the ninth century
B.C., there was not yet any general name to designate all the
inhabitants of Greece: Homer mentions them under the names of their
principal tribes. From his description it appears that they have made
some progress since their departure from Asia. They know how to till
the ground, how to construct strong cities and to organize themselves
into little peoples. They obey kings; they have a council of old men
and an assembly of the people. They are proud of their institutions,
they despise their less advanced neighbors, the Barbarians, as they
call them.
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