Homer

Homer

1. c. 800 bc, Greek poet to whom are attributed the Iliad and the Odyssey. Almost nothing is known of him, but it is thought that he was born on the island of Chios and was blind

2. Winslow. 1836--1910, US painter, noted for his seascapes and scenes of working life

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

homer

[′hō·mər]

(navigation)

A ground-based direction-finding station that utilizes radio transmissions from aircraft to determine their bearing, then guides the aircraft toward the station by voice communications.

(ordnance)

target seeker

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

homer

Refers to a direction finder that gives homing (i.e., the course to steer to the station or a bearing of the aircraft from the station).

An Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Homer

sightless writer of Iliad and Odyssey. [Gr. Hist.: Wallechinsky, 13]

See: Blindness

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Homer

legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. [Gk. Lit.: Benét, 474]

See: Poetry

Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Homer

 

legendary epic poet of ancient Greece. In ancient sources the historical persona of a blind, wandering singer is intertwined with fantasies, which testifies to the lack of reliable information concerning Homer as an individual. According to ancient tradition, “seven cities” (Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, and Athens) competed for the honor of being called Homer’s birthplace. Homer lived sometime between the 12th and the seventh centuries B.C., according to various determinations. The name Homer itself was frequently interpreted in antiquity and in modern times as the common noun for “hostage” or “blind man.”

Homer was considered to be the author of a large part of the repertory of the performers of epics (rhapsodists). Later, classical criticism singled out two epic poems as his allegedly original works, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and also some smaller works (the “Homeric Hymns,” the comic narrative poem Margites, and others). The entire complex of problems connected with the traditions on Homer and the origin of the works attributed to him constitutes the so-called Homeric question, which still lacks a definitive solution.

I. M. TRONSKII

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.