Homer (VIII century b.C.?)      
Homer is the name traditionally assigned to the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two major epics of Greek antiquity. Nothing is known of Homer as an individual, and in fact it is a matter of controversy whether a single person can be said to have written both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Linguistic and historical evidence, however, suggests that the poems were composed in the Greek settlements on the west coast of Asia Minor sometime in the 8th century BC.
Both epics deal with legendary events that were believed to have occurred many centuries before their composition. The Iliad is set in the final year of the Trojan War, fought between the Greeks and the inhabitants of the city of Troy. The legendary conflict forms the background for the central plot of the story: the wrath of the Greek hero Achilles.
The Odyssey describes the return of the Greek hero Ulysses from the Trojan War during. Both epics are written in an elaborate style, using language that was too impersonal and formal for ordinary discourse, known as Epyc Style. Stylistically no real distinction can be made between the two works. Since antiquity, however, many readers have believed that they were written by different people.
Besides the Iliad and the Odyssey, the so-called Homeric Hymns, a series of relatively short poems celebrating the various gods and composed in a style similar to that of the epics, have also been attributed traditionally to Homer.

links: - the Iliad and the Odissey