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Homer
Homer (c. 750 BCE) is perhaps the greatest of all epic poets and his legendary status was well established by the time of Classical Athens. He composed (not wrote, since the poems were created and transmitted orally, they were not written...
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Homer
A 1st century CE portrait of the Greek blind poet Homer, celebrated author of the Iliad and Odyssey. This bust is based on a 5th century BCE original but even that was an idealised representation as no contemporary portrait existed. (Vatican...
Definition
Thersites
Thersites is a character in the Iliad who made a stand against Agamemnon and the enterprise of the Trojan War. Homer chose to add Thersites’ speech after Achilles’ infamous dispute with Agamemnon, probably to emphasize the struggles that...
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The Banquet Stele of Ashurnasirpal II
When he came to the throne in 884 BCE, Ashurnasirpal II had to attend to revolts which broke out across the empire. He ruthlessly put down all rebellions, destroyed the rebel cities and, as a warning to others, impaled, burned, and flayed...
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The Apotheosis of Homer
Marble relief depicting the Apotheosis (elevation to divine status) of the poet Homer with Zeus, Apollo and the Muses, signed by the sculptor Archelaus of Priene, ca. 225-205 BCE, found in Italy but thought to have been sculpted in Egypt...
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Portrait of Homer
Marble portrait bust of the blind poet Homer with Greek letters carved on each side, Antonine copy (2nd century CE) of a Hellenistic original of the 2nd century BCE, found 1780 near Baiae (Italy). Now in the British Museum.
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Prisoners from the Front by Winslow Homer
"Prisoners from the Front" by American painter Winslow Homer (1836–1910 CE) depicts the aftermath of a battle during the American Civil War. It portrays Union officer Brigadier General Francis Channing Barlow (1834–1896 CE) capturing several...
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The Cotton Pickers by Winslow Homer
"The Cotton Pickers" by Winslow Homer (1836 – 1910 CE). The painting depicts two African-American women labouring in the cotton fields. A major theme of the painting is the continuing racial and economic inequality that existed after the...
Definition
Troy
Troy is the name of the Bronze Age city attacked in the Trojan War, a popular story in the mythology of ancient Greece, and the name given to the archaeological site in the north-west of Asia Minor (now Turkey) which has revealed a large...
Definition
Trojan War
The Trojan War was fought between Greeks and the defenders of the city of Troy in Anatolia sometime in the late Bronze Age. The story has grabbed the imagination for millennia but a conflict between Mycenaeans and Hittites may well have occurred...