The Homeric works, the Iliad and the Odyssey, form the founding body of European literature. From the 8th century BCE to the present day, these works have traveled from language to language, from age to age, preserving their primal power while transforming through the needs, tastes, and values of each era.
Who was Homer – the first European writer?
One might say he is the shadow of a voice that sings ancient stories.
According to some traditions, Homer was the first rhapsode—traveling to recite his poems (it is said he was the first to carry a staff), possibly composing them in written form. His figure is shrouded in mystery: the biographical clues surrounding him are vague and contradictory.
We do not know with certainty his birthplace (seven ancient cities claimed it), nor the era in which he lived, nor even if he himself composed both the Iliad and the Odyssey. According to a popular etymological version, the name Homeros means “he who does not see,” since the poet was said to have been blind—though even that is doubted.
Was Homer, then, a real person or a mythic symbol? Was he the sole creator of the epic poems? These are the questions that have preoccupied generations of scholars engaged with what is known as the Homeric Question.
Despite the enigmatic figure of their creator, the epics have been and remain a source of inspiration, knowledge, and creativity. His rhapsodies have served as a bridge between oral and written tradition, inspiring awe in anyone who attempts to convey them in a modern language without betraying their rhythm, musicality, and density.
The Challenge of Translation
Translating the Homeric epics is an act of both creation and confrontation.
In the preface to the Iliad (Athens, 1965), I.Th. Kakridis described the translational odyssey as follows:
“[...] The reader now knows how many years and how much effort it took to give this translation, even provisionally, its final form — and can imagine how many drafts were required, how many times each verse had to be cast and recast. Yet what we wish for is that, while reading this translation, the reader will perceive nothing of this toil: if the verses flow smoothly and effortlessly, as if they had just been poured by the poet himself under the Muse’s divine breath, only then may we say — together with the reader — that the translation has succeeded.”
Likewise, D.N. Maronitis, in the preface to his Odyssey (Athens, 2006), described his own encounter with the Homeric text:
“Anyone who reads the Odyssey attentively feels the vast distance of space and time that separates us from it. Yet gradually one senses that the poem—while traveling—keeps coming and going, drawing nearer and receding, sometimes smiling with affection and sometimes with irony. And this coming and going ends in a strange kind of hospitality.”
Great figures of Greek letters—Kazantzakis, Kakridis, Kalvos, Solomos, Maronitis, Eftaliotis, Polylas, Gkazis, Doukas, Markoras, Pallis, Rizos-Rangavis, Vikelas—have all grappled with the arduous task of translating the Homeric epics. With diverse theoretical and stylistic approaches, their versions reveal how challenging it is to preserve the measure, precision, and spirit of Homeric language within a new linguistic reality.
The exhibition’s artefacts bear witness to this ongoing endeavor: manuscripts, school editions, philological notes, and a wealth of 19th- and 20th-century publications attest that translation is never complete — it is a continuous dialogue with the ancient text.
Homer Beyond the Text
The influence of Homer’s works extends far beyond literature. Numerous artworks, films, animations, dance and theatre performances, and illustrated editions attest that the narrative power of the Homeric epics has, through the centuries, continued to attract and inspire artists, directors, and creators.
Homer has even earned his own page in the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), credited as a screenwriter for films such as the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2001), which is unofficially based on the Odyssey; Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy (2004), starring Brad Pitt as Achilles; and Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Odyssey (2026), featuring Matt Damon as Odysseus.
The exhibition
The exhibition presents artworks, sketches, set models, theatrical programs, photographs, and illustrations that reveal how Homeric heroes have continued to inspire artists, stage directors, and creators. These works show that Homer is not merely a poet of the past, but a timeless storyteller of human experience—of adventure, loss, longing, and return.
Whether in the dense eloquence of the ancient verses or in the simplicity of modern visual and performative interpretation, the epics continue to serve as a mirror of humanity and its enduring need to narrate the world.
Perhaps the greatest charm of the Homeric epics lies in our inability to define them once and for all — neither merely as ancient texts nor solely as literary translations. They are palimpsests of human effort, testimonies to an unending dialogue between the voice of the past and the present’s need to hear it anew.
The exhibition contains items from the following institutions:
