Homer is arguably an invented historical character credited with the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey, epic poems that are the beginning of the Western canon of literature.
If Homer indeed existed, it is possible that he belonged to a professional class of ancient sing-poets called aoidoi in classical Greece. The aoidoi used a generations-old technique that emerged from oral literary tradition to memorize and spread culture.
For the younger generations, Homer may also be the patriarch of the Simpsons family, an invention of modern-time aoidoi Matt Groening. This reference may suggest that Homer is a friendly book scanner, even to someone generally seen as incompetent and lazy as Mr. Simpson!
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