Quintus of Smyrna, The Posthomerica

Fotini Hadjittofi (Universidade de Lisboa)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Tweet Report an Error

The Posthomerica is a Greek epic of approximately 8,800 lines, divided into fourteen Books, whose aim is to bridge the chronological gap between the two Homeric epics by narrating the events that occur after the death and burial of Hector at the end of the Iliad and before Odysseus' adventures as narrated in the Odyssey. The poem was probably written in the third century CE, and circulated together with the Homeric epics throughout Late Antiquity and Byzantium.

There is almost no external evidence about the author of this work. Manuscripts only give us a title (Ta meth' Homeron, literally “the things after Homer”) and a Hellenised Latin praenomen (Kointos, from the …

2044 words

Citation: Hadjittofi, Fotini. "The Posthomerica". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 May 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=30295, accessed 24 November 2024.]

30295 The Posthomerica 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.