The name “Homer” is synonymous with great tales of heroic poetry. Although this genre of poetry hails the distinctness of being “Homeric” it isnot certain that Homer himself actually existed. The book Prolegomena adHoerum, published in 1795 CE. written by F.A. Wolf, translated “TheHomeric Problem”, set in motion numerous debates among scholarsconcerning Homers existence, and the fact that Homer may have been agroup of writers, and not just one man.If we accept that Homer existed, we believe that Homer, was a blind Greekbard, that traveled throughout Ionia reciting his poetry in exchange for roomand board.Crawford pg. 2In this paper I will examine and analyze the use of words that create graphicpictures for the mind, and words that excite the imagination. I will illustrate how the use of such a graphic idiom is still popular today.Although we have entered a new millennium filled with special effects, andcomputer graphics , many of us continue to appreciate the excitement of thewritten word from those authors that produce masterpieces. The Iliad doesjust that. Homer’s use of language evokes the passion of his characters andtheir heartfelt emotions. The Iliad embodies action at it’s very onset, andalthough long in content, captures and to an extent , possesses it’s reader.I am sure that it is the style and meter, that Homer uses to convey histhoughts, that make the Iliad such a classic epic.Crawford pg. 3In the opening lines of the Iliad, words of war capture the reader.Rage-Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles,murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds, (Homer 122 1-5)It is descriptions, such as these that lure the reader in. Immediately one cansee that Achilles, (knowing him or not) is some...
