Homeric Paintings: The Man, the Myth, and the Legend

Artists bring to life scenes from Homer's life and his epic poems the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey'

Detail of "Homer and His Guide," 1874, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. John R. Glembin/Milwaukee Art Museum

For millennia, the ancient Greek epic poems the “Iliad” and the ”Odyssey” have profoundly influenced readers, scholars, authors, and artists, and they are universally regarded as two of Western civilization’s foundational literary texts. The basis of both stories is the Trojan War, which was precipitated by Helen, queen of the Greek city-state of Sparta, leaving her husband and taking refuge in Troy with Paris, a prince of that city.

The “Iliad” is set in the 10th year of the resultant war between Troy and the Greek city-states. The war ends with the siege of Troy by the Greeks. The ”Odyssey” follows the turbulent journey of one of the war’s Greek heroes, Odysseus, King of Ithaca, on his voyage home. It takes Odysseus another 10 years to return to Ithaca as he craftily contends with various impediments. In the meantime, his queen, Penelope, uses her own guile to avoid remarriage, hopeful that her husband will one day return. In both of these poems, characters, relationships, and scenes of honor, danger, and temptation are masterfully brought to life by their poet, the legendary Homer.

For centuries, scholars have tried to tease out the truth about Homer: Was there such a man; if so, did he compose the famous tales; is there historical truth to his mythical storytelling? While it remains open to debate whether the poems are the result of one man’s creativity or an accumulation of different authors’ source material, it is agreed that the poems were originally composed and passed down orally sometime in the late eighth or early seventh century B.C. before the widespread development of writing in Greece.

‘A Reading From Homer’

"A Reading From Homer," 1885, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Oil on canvas; 36.1 inches by 72.2 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Public Domain

The painting “A Reading From Homer,” by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912), a leading 19th-century artist in Britain who specialized in classical scenes in the academic style, shows a semi-historically accurate scene set toward the end of the seventh century B.C. By then, Homer’s words would have been committed to scroll, and in the artwork a young poet crowned with a laurel wreath reads aloud Homer’s verse to an audience attired for a festival.

In ancient Greece, Homer’s poetry would have been sung by bards to the accompaniment of a lyre. Alma-Tadema included an ancient stringed instrument similar to a lyre, called a cithara, on the left-hand side of the painting. Greek letters inscribed in a marble wall on the right-hand side spell Homer’s name and denote that Alma-Tadema’s imagined architectural setting overlooking the Mediterranean is dedicated to the poet.

“A Reading From Homer” is considered one of Alma-Tadema’s best works, all the more astonishing for his having completed it in only two months, given its luminous and harmonious colors, perfectly modeled figures, and theatrical composition. Significantly, the most commanding figure is the poet: The papyrus scroll extends from his outstretched arm to his lap, and he leans forward with intent and vim, thus keeping the viewer’s focus on this tribute to Homer.

‘Homer and His Guide’

"Homer and His Guide," 1874, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Oil on canvas; 82.25 inches by 56.25 inches. Gift of Frederick Layton, Milwaukee Art Museum. John R. Glembin/Milwaukee Art Museum

The main attribute associated with Homer is his blindness. Historian and writer Daisy Dunn writes, in an essay for the British Museum: “Ancient writers had various ideas about what Homer looked like. The word ‘homeros’ could mean ’hostage‘ in Greek, so some imagined that he was a captive. But ’homeros’ could also mean ‘blind,’ and the image of a blind bard proved particularly compelling.”

The prominent French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905) created “Homer and His Guide” in 1874 at a time when classical painting was coming into conflict with a new style of art; this movement became known as impressionism. Some scholars believe Bouguereau painted this work specifically to show the merits of traditional painting and as a rebuttal to the new movement.

Bouguereau’s painting shows a young shepherd helping the blind Homer navigate a hilly, rocky landscape set under a cloudless, azure sky. The artist depicted Homer with another characteristic attribute, a lyre, and modeled Homer’s head after a cast of an antique bust of the poet housed in a Neapolitan archaeological museum. The highly detailed, lifelike composition of landscape, figures, drapery, and dog is made up of multiple thin layers of paint that create a smooth finish without distinguishable brushstrokes.

The Beauty of the Ages

"Helen," 1881, by Sir Edward John Poynter. Oil on canvas; 36.1 inches by 28.1 inches. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. (Edward Poynter/CC BY-SA 4.0)

Scenes from the poems themselves have been imagined in a plethora of paintings and sculptures, from ancient Greek vases to Roman frescos to 19th-century paintings. Helen of Troy, the subject of Sir Edward John Poynter’s painting “Helen,” is popularly known as “the face that launch'd a thousand ships,” a line from a Christopher Marlowe play. She was the great beauty of the ancient world. Poynter (1836–1919) used actress Lillie Langtry, one of the great beauties of his day, as the model for “Helen.”

Poynter was an academic painter known for his classically themed artworks. He made a series of oil paintings and watercolors with the subject of heroines from antiquity in half-length poses. This type of composition can be seen in “Helen.”

Helen of Troy was the daughter of Zeus, king of the gods, and Leda, queen of Sparta, with Sparta being a city in southern Greece. Many suitors were eager for her hand in marriage, but before she married Menelaus, who became king of Sparta, all who had vied for her swore an oath to provide military assistance to Menelaus if Helen was ever taken from him. Hence, when she absconded with Paris to Troy, nearly 1,200 Greek ships sailed to Troy to wage war as detailed in the “Iliad.”

In Poynter’s rendition of Helen, she is framed by architectural features. She has one hand placed over her chest while the other holds her robe. This protective gesture is the only hint of emotion suggested as the city of Troy, just visible to the left of the column, is being burned to the ground by the invading Greeks. Helen’s large blue eyes stare expressionlessly at something beyond the picture frame, and the rest of her face is as immobile as that of a statue. She wears two distinctive necklaces that were the artist’s own creation and, in fact, were brought to life by a 19th-century jeweler, Carlo Giuliano, who specialized in archeological revivalist styles.

Outwitting the Cyclops

"Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus–Homer’s Odyssey,"1829, by Joseph Mallord William Turner. Oil on canvas; 52.1 inches by 80 inches. The National Gallery, London. Public Domain

One of the most famous escapades in the “Odyssey” is in Book IX when Ulysses, the Latinized version of Odysseus, outwits and escapes the cyclops Polyphemus, who has been keeping him and his men captive in a cave. The painting “Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus–Homer’s Odyssey” by the English Romantic artist J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) is considered one of the great pictures of Turner’s oeuvre.

Turner based his painting on Alexander Pope’s translation of Homer’s poem. He was particularly inspired by Pope’s description of Polyphemus, whose blinded one-eyed visage is barely visible in the skyline among the clouds on the left, as resembling a monstrous growth on a mountain. In the painting, Ulysses raises his arms victoriously as he holds the flaming torch with which he has blinded the cyclops. He stands on his ship dressed in red under a similarly colored banner.

When “Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus–Homer’s Odyssey” was on exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2008, the museum described how “the painting reveals Turner’s preoccupation with light—from the smoking glow of the volcanic fire to the marine phosphorescence at the prow of Ulysses’s ship and the celestial light of the sun, as symbolized by Apollo’s chariot.” The chariot’s horses were modeled partially after horses on the Parthenon frieze, which had gone on display at the British Museum 12 years before Turner created this work. This painting, with its varied rich colors including cobalt, reds, pinks, greens and yellows, marked a turning point in Turner’s increasingly vigorous investigation of color and light in historical landscapes.

Penelope’s Plight

"Penelope and the Suitors," 1911–12, by John William Waterhouse. Oil on canvas; 51.1 inches by 74 inches. Aberdeen Art Gallery, Scotland. Public Domain

“The Odyssey” recounts that while Odysseus is tangling with cyclops on one island and sorcery on another, his wife, Penelope (Helen’s cousin), is besieged herself—not by mythical monsters but by eager male suitors. They presume that Odysseus is dead, as all other survivors of the Trojan War have returned to their families. Loyal Penelope believes that Odysseus is still alive. To stall the suitors, she declares that she will take a new husband only when she has completed weaving a shroud for her father-in-law. In secret, she unravels her work every night.

In the painting “Penelope and the Suitors” by John William Waterhouse (1849–1917), Penelope is at the center of the scene, working by day under watchful eyes. Waterhouse began his career as an academic painter before transitioning to a Pre-Raphaelite style and pursuing literary themes with naturalistic details, rich tonal palettes, and beautiful female subjects, all of which can be seen in this large painting. The Aberdeen Art Gallery commissioned this work from the artist in the early 20th century, when the heyday of Pre-Raphaelitism had long since passed. The art world was looking to more modern styles, such as cubism, reflecting a tension similar to that between Bouguereau and impressionism.

“Penelope and the Suitors” is a major painting from Waterhouse’s late career. Its complex composition is rendered with realistic and colorful details in its portrayal of patterns, materials, and textiles. Penelope is shown in profile and in action. A thread in her mouth and a shuttle in her raised left hand creates a seemingly industrious tableau. On the left, two maids with their flowing dresses assist with the shroud weaving. On the right, four suitors on the exterior of Penelope’s room vie for her attention, though she has her back to them.

Jewelry and a lyre, as is prominent in other paintings discussed here, are used in this context to coax a response from her. A portion of the wall below the suitors has a decorative frieze showing a battle scene, perhaps a foreshadowing of how Odysseus will return and defeat his would-be replacements.

Homer and his poems speak across a chasm of nearly 3,000 years to reach a still-receptive readership. These exemplary artworks from the 18th to 20th centuries, which are also preserved pieces of history, vividly and tangibly bring to life Homer and his ancient tales.

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