Who was Homer, author of the Odyssey?

Odysseus killing the suitors New York Public Library/Unsplash Who wrote the Odyssey? Homer, obviously: that is what we’ve been told since the late 6th century BCE, when ancient Greeks started crediting the Odyssey to a blind bard from the rocky isle of Chios. But this “Homer” appeared at least a century later than the poem itself. When the Odyssey first began to circulate in ancient Greece, no one knew its author. The song seems to have created the singer, not the other way around. How can you…