When was the ILIAD written?

Question

who wrote it and WHEN????????

Answer 1

Two questions with no definite answers.  In the old days books were much more expensive than they are today.  You pretty much had to be a king or at least aristocracy to own them and if you could write you were aristocracy period.  On the other hand the Seige of troy and the composition of the Iliad apparently happened during what we call the Greek Dark Ages, the one time in history when a literate people LOST the ability to write.  Homer, whomever he was, was most likely a master bard who lived a few centuries after the fall of Troy.  He apparently wove pre-existing legends, ballads and pre-existing material into what came to be regarded as the two definitive accounts -- the Odyssey and the Iliad.  Some time after his death, most likely before the sixth century, these accounts were finally written down.

Poetry throughout the world, and definitely in the Indo-European tradition, has been used to supplement written accounts -- and vice versa.  In fact Caesar reported that the Druids of the Indo-European Celts forbade the committing of most of their lore to writing because, they argued, this hurt the memory.  It was precisely memory which was helped by these verse schemes.  The songs were taught and finally written down, when it was economical to do so.

We have traditional accounts of Homer.  Over the last 200 years we have discovered proof of a lot of traditional accounts we had dismissed, but it is unlikely we shall ever have proof of Homer and the accounts of him.

Answer 2

Homer wrote it, nobody knows exactly when or who Homer really was.

Answer 3

No one really knows, but it is thought to be sometime between the 8th & 9th century BC.