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As a Classicist myself, I choose to believe that the irregularities in this chart are due to the creator speaking English as a second language. Or perhaps deliberate irony.
Let me translate for the college degree less. Homer did not “invent” the Illiad. He WROTE it.
why do people praise poets like they made life how it is today and give them so much credit but no one rly ever cares about scientists.. seems retarded and backwards to me but whatever
No one cares about scientists? What about the Nobel Prize in Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology/Medicine? What do you think those are for?
yeah i know but i mean common people think Shakespeare is so influential and inspirational and avg people don’t know like one Nobel prize winner, makes me sad. lol
Um, what about the over 22,000 words that Shakespeare did invent and add to the English language???
OK, people know Shakespeare, but they also know Albert Einstein. The average dumb person probably couldn’t name another playwright or old author, just like they can’t name a Nobel prize winner.
i agree with you, and where is ’sigh’ getting this idea anyway. most people DO NOT know poets.
right, i don’t get that either.
I still like waffles
what about the guy who MADE the Nobel prizes? and marie curie, did she die of leukemia because of randomness?
Alfred Nobel right?
Dante Alighieri was better nuff said. xD
but your argument wasn’t even about poet vs. poet. it was about poet vs. scientist.
Believe you me, educating people about the arts is as much a task as teaching math and science. Part of the problem you’re seeing is that Shakespeare, his works being about the human condition, is much easier to bring up in normal conversation than, say, Tesla. When it comes down to it, though, it’s much more likely that the scientist is going to get more respect than the poet at a party.
amen to that!!
and tesla rocks by the way, glad you mentioned his bad-a$$ self!!
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Todd is a wuss
And so are you
invent – come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort; “excogitate a way to measure the speed of light”
invent – fabricate: make up something artificial or untrue
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Homer may not have actually WROTE the Iliad either, do a little research before trying to make use of some grammar school wisdom.
May not have actually WRITTEN, you mean?
burn!
I’m glad you missed the sarcasm. I’ll try harder next time.
What Rihannon said was grammatically correct: “he wrote”
What Dumbass (you) said was not: “Homer may not have wrote” (considering that ‘actually’ isn’t part of the verb phrase).
Do a little of your homework before going to preschool tomorrow, and you might actually be able to use sarcasm.
P.S. don’t try harder, you might strain something.
Why is everyone focusing on the fact that he didn’t invent the Iliad and overlooking the fact that he didn’t influence the *COURSE* of history?
That was my first thought, too.
I think that’s an arguable point. My knowledge on the subject is limited, but I know that Alexander the Great, for one, was supposedly inspired by “The Iliad,” so you could argue that that might be rather influential.
Oh, never mind, I didn’t realize you were talking about spelling.
I think she was talking about both, actually, but I could be wrong. What you’ve brought up, though, is what I’ve been thinking, which is a very old question. From the scientific perspective: what came first, the chicken or the egg? From and artistic perspective: does life influence art, or does art influence life?
Hm… Science created the means for human advancement, and art created the inspiration to make those advancements. They are fairly close to equal in significance.
yeah where did THAT even come from? weird how the poster said he influenced the course of history. all of this is pretty lame actually and i’m sure far more people know who Homer (the poet) is than this person gives credit for, if for nothing else, because it’s requiredreading in so many high schools
“corse” is an archaic term for corpse. I found that kind of amusing.
“…influenced the corpse of history…”
Synonyms of “invent” from Merriam-Webster and Thesaurus.com: concoct, contrive, fabricate, make up, author, envision, produce, come up with, dream up, and many, many more appropriate words. “Invent” works perfectly. It’s the rest of the words that suck.
Yes but invent IMO has the connotation of inventing a product, or something along those lines. The denotation of a word isn’t always sufficient. Especially where someone not familiar with Homer might mistake “The Iliad” for something other than a poem. (The graph is after all, about people’s lack of familiarity with the Grecian Homer)
Synonyms are not definitions! Thesauruses are not dictionaries!
Fine. DEFINITIONS from DICTIONARY.com: “to produce or create with the imagination: to invent a story”, “to make up or fabricate (something fictitious or false): to invent excuses”. Argh. I hereby revoke your English-language user’s licenses.
The point is that he didn’t actually invent the story. He wrote down the story, which had previously been passed down by word of mouth, hence the invocation of the vocal muse at the beginning.
I have absolutely no idea who came up with or wrote down The Iliad, nor do I know anything or care to know anything about The Iliad. I am replying solely on a vocab level (to whom I’m no longer sure). The graph maker and some others on here believe that Homer came up with the thing on his own. Whether that’s true or not, I do not know and I do not care. My point is, that if it IS true, then he did INVENT it. All I am doing is shining some light on the multiple meanings of the word “invent”. Many posters on here think it only has to do with things like the wheel, the cotton gin and the toaster. Besides, this thing is ancient. Nobody knows for sure what went down. If they did, there wouldn’t be so many conflicting opinions from just 136 (at this time) TPS reports.
PS, it’s actually “thesauri”.
Homer never actually *wrote* The Iliad. He couldn’t; he was blind. What he did do was to create the epic (which was based on already existent mythology, which was then passed down from generation to generation by oral tradition. The Iliad was eventually written down by some guy (or woman?) who has now been dead for thousands of years.
Also, Homer didn’t change the CORSE of history.
Forgot a parenthesis. Fail.
Okay. Classical literature lesson:
He didn’t write it, either. Homer was either 1) a poet who recorded an oral poem or 2) a name given to the oral tradition, and so was never actually a person. “Homer” is never referred to in the epic poems. The name comes from “Homeros,” which literally means a guard or an assurance of unity, or even a hostage.
I know! One does not get “ill” from reading the Iliad. One ‘L’, people!
Of corse your rite.
Off course you’re write.
Luckily in The Netherlands, we don’t have this confusion: Homer Simpson is just Homer, while Homer the poet is Homerus.
Everything’s better in The Netherlands.
Add an “-us” to anything and it will sound fancier.
My high school boyfriend’s blue van was named Homer *sigh*
I’m going to touch that one… It just pleads for too many things to be said…
but yet, you said none of them. please, let us in on your sick mind. lol.
LOL buddy you spellled COARSE wrong, hha
lol i dunno if it was intentional or not but i think you did too
You must be a Classicist then.
ITS COURSE!!
Not coarse, not corse, but course.
Wow…
A hoarse is a hourse of coarse of corse.
It’s also IT’S.
But whatev.
He wasn’t talking about sandpaper, so you spelled COURSE wrong as well…
I think Matt realizes that. I’m surprised no one has pointed out the misspelling of Iliad.
I seriously doubt that.
Also, (For the graphmaker) why not mention Winslow Homer, the great American landscape artist?
Anyone else feel like submitting this graph to the Engrish pages…?
hahaha YES
Or FAIL Blog.
I’m sure we could add many slices of various sizes. Did you see the comment above about the van named Homer? I think that would be thinner than the slice for Winslow Homer, but considering the un-cultured state of contemporary America, maybe not.
Uh, what about baseball? shouldn’t that be a bit of this slice?
mmmm slice
someone did, minutes after you posted this, further up in the stream.
This chart makes me weep. You neglected to capitalize ‘Greek’, spelled ‘course’ wrong, and asserted that Homer ‘invented’ “The Illiad.” You’re making a chart about literature. I would think you would have enough sense to at least scan over it and fix your mistakes. Sadly, you probably did, and you still came up with something this dismal.
Am I overreacting? I don’t think so.
By the way, when making a chart like this I would suggest being more specific with your demographic. Perhaps instead of ‘people’ you could use ‘middle schoolers’ or ‘idiots.’ Just a suggestion.
And, of course, spelling ‘Iliad’ wrong, which I can’t really call you on, seeing as I have the same typo. Feel free to beat me with a stick. *Headdesk.*
:beating sunshiner with stick: why is your name sunshiner yet you are so intensely negative? o btw the misspelling was pointed out three times… we got it already grammar/spelling nazis!!!
I hate spelling Nazi’s they make such a big deal over small things like grammar on website where just about everything is misspelled. If you ask me grammar Nazi’s are worse then real Nazi’s who only killed six million people.*
* Just in case you couldn’t tell I hate when people add Nazi to a word or phrase to emphases pickiness or extremism such as grammar nazi or Femenazi etc, etc
Nazis, no apostrophe. In the overwhelming majority of grammatical cases, adding an apostrophe creates posession of the noun (barring the rules of creating contractions). Adding an “s” simply pluralizes the word. Spelling Nazis simply use the English language correctly, as they were taught in their elementary schools. A spelling Nazi’s use of grammar is simply correct. Spelling Nazis do not appreciate it when a person being critical of them cannot even use simple first grade grammar correctly. You might wish to call your elementary school teachers and apologize for sleeping through school.
You were taught how to spell Nazi in first grade? O_o Or did I just not want to read that entire text?
(Find a mistake in that, grammar Nazis!)
Uhh, Mr. Sunshine, Your Illaid is in quotation marks, so that’s not a spelling mistake. You were just, well I interpreted it as, quoting his mistake to emphasize your point.
“Illaid”
Anyone else to offer an alternate spelling?
Yes, I realized that I could pass that off as that AFTER I posted my correction and embarrassment. I’ll own up to my mistake, though. :/ It’s just the internet, right? It’s not like my reputation is at stake.
By the way, that’s Ms. Sunshine to you.
Why would you think of the guy who wrote the iliad when you hear the name Homer? Last time i checked it was Homeros that wrote the Iliad and Odyssues!
Homeros otherwise known as Homer… ummmmm…. yeah… ride the short bus lately?
Wow. There are a lot of bitter people on this site.
Could it be that we get jaded by all the poor spelling and grammar all over the internet, and by people that rely on spell check and not actually learning the rules of the language (ie, spelling “lose” with two Os, their/they’re/there, your/you’re, etc.). On this site there are an irritating number of graphs where the humour is lost because of glaring mistakes in the description or labels.
Then we see submissions like this one, where the author obviously didn’t even bother with spell check. It would have picked up “corse”, “Illiad”, and “greek”. Even my browser has picked up on those errors as I write this comment. If you’re feeling really picky, the inconsistent capitalization in the title is also a rub.
Most disturbingly, people continue to make these errors after completing not only high school, but even after university.
I don’t expect everyone to be highly articulate, but being able to write a single sentence without making half a dozen mistakes is important in today’s world. If you’re submitting something for the world to see, as on this site, you’d think people would take a little pride in their work and do it right.
Instead of a little smile and nod of agreement when viewing this graph I am instead sitting here shaking my head, disappointed in the poor workmanship.
Call me a Grammar Nazi all you want, but I review resumes from job applicants and I will tell you that the person that can spell is the person that gets called back.
I agree with you, it is annoying when there are so many mistakes.
But when it comes from a website linked with lolcats/dogs/celebs I don’t have that high of expectations.
I just think it’s a waste of energy to become upset/annoyed/irritated/ etc. over poor grammar/spelling on a website such as this.
not to mention the fact that not everyone on this site is fluent in english
Grammar Nazi- this isn’t a job application its people expressing themselves and having fun… stop being a workaholic and get a life!
I think part of the reason why we have such a beef with this graph is that it appears to be decrying the relative ignorance of the Classics in favor of modern TV shows within modern culture — but then goes off and makes an absurd number of mistakes within very few words. There’s a large overlap between people who study Classical literature (especially in their original languages) and people who really care about accurate use of standard English. It seems hypocritical, is all. The creator wishes (apparently) that people would read more old lit, but doesn’t much care for written language when telling us so.
What if the creator of the graph is very fond of old literature but is also dyslexic and, therefore, has a hard time relaying information in a consistent, or even accurate, manner? Furthermore, what if the creator speaks English as a second language?
Not so much a Grammar Nazi is a douchebag in general.
Just because you’re an anal retentive person doesn’t mean that we should have to suffer. Please feel free to keep your unsolicited, condescending remarks about how you are perfect in every way and everyone who doesn’t live up to your standard is scum to yourself.
AMEN
You mean e.g. not i.e.
Actually, either would be fine.
e.g stands for exempli gratia meaning for the sake of an example.
i.e. stands for id est meaning that is, or in this case.
Rather fittingly this is Latin.
If you’re going to be pedantic about things it might be a good idea to also be correct.
no kidding..
I remember when someone answered Homer on Jeopardy (referring to the writer) and when it was incorrect he said “D’oh!”
I remember one time on Jeopardy when the Final Jeopardy category was “The Universe”. Seriously. The contestants had to spend the commercial break deciding what to wager on their knowledge of, well, everything.
A: The Illiad was not “invented”, although it was his story he passed down through generations and generations of illiterate human beings (not unlike yourself) until someone finally wrote it down.
B: It’s spelled “COURSE”.
Its been pointed out already but thanks for reemphasizing my point!
I don’t know about you, but I thought of Homer Bailey. Curse me for being a Reds fan.
So did I, Bob – and I feel like going to Cincy and slapping the crap out of the GM for trading Edwin & Jerry….
I did too! I was like, “What about Bailey?” lol
I’d like to slap Jockety too… but not for trading Edwin. I was so glad to hear he’s gone. No more, “Well, he’s got potential…” it’s been 4 years. Obviously there’s no potential, only mediocrity. I’ve never really liked Rolen, but he’s a phenomenal 3rd baseman (7 Gold Gloves) and he actually wants to be here (Indiana native)! And he’s a veteran who can teach our young boys not to give up so easily all the time.
Hairston, on the other hand, so sad! Why not Taveras? Hairston can actually hit the dang ball!
You are greatly exaggerating the importance of Homer.
Which one?
D’oh!
I’m sorry, but could you briefly tell me how the Iliad greatly influenced history? This isn’t to pick on you (the creator), but out of curiosity because I don’t know (yes, I’m ignorant) and I’d like it to be otherwise.
If he didn’t, then please don’t tell people that he did. That is lying. Lying is bad. Those who lie steal, and those who steal go to prison. Those who go to prison get raped and die.
I could always just google this, but I’d prefer to hear it from your mouth (you who obviously must know quite alot about him, since you complain about other people’s ignorance or obliviousness (not sure of this is a word) about him).
You should ofcourse not google or check encyclopedias before you answer either. That would be cheating. And those who cheat lie, and those who lie… etc etc.
Uhm, as a Greek the only way I can think of Iliad (or Odyssey, for that matter) influencing History is perhaps the fact that it is the oldest piece of literacy – and that is quite noteworthy. If Iliad wasn’t written down by Homer and company, perhaps books and overall literacy would not have evolved into what it is today. Then again I might be wrong, as I’m not an expert on this kind of thing.
(By the way, Iliad can also be recalled as the oldest “song” -except for the yadda-yaddas of people before civilization. Troubadours and singers used to sing it (they were called Aoidoi, and later on, they were sung by Rapsodous) to everyone who had the patience and will to listen to.
And it was not INVENTED. Homer is not an inventor, he is a blind poet for Christ’s sake. Yes, blind. He didn’t write it down himself, he told one of his people to put his words on paper.
Jason: The word you were searching for was “Literature” not “literacy”. Although I can forgive you if English is your second language.
Mostly right…
Yes, “literature,” not “literacy.” Also, the Aeneid (which was actually written by the Roman poet Virgil or Vergil–take your spelling pick) is heavily influenced by Homeric epic. The first half of the Aeneid is based on the Odyssey, while the second half is based on the Iliad. Also, the language use, such as so-called “Homeric similes” and epithets were used in the Aeneid, as well as by later writers.
There is no actual evidence there was a real Homer. The later Greeks and Romans attributed the epic poems to a person named “Homer,” or “Homeros.”
uhh…baseball anyone?
My thought exactly. I think baseball before I think Simpsons.
“It must be a homer, Simpson, cuz the pitcher just said, ‘d’oh!’”
Add me to that list. Go Angels!
Rangers will kick your a$$es! Go Texas!
Entirely possible. May the best team win – as long as it ain’t the Red Sox.
I’ll agree to that. Go AL west! Even Seattle is having a pretty darn good year.
Also, Homer didn’t WRITE the Iliad. He WROTE IT DOWN. The Iliad was an epic that had been told orally for generations. Homer is attributed with the story because he was the first storyteller who wrote the story down. No one knows who originally “wrote” the story.
Just to be annoying: There is significant evidence that the storyteller/writer (not to be confused with author) known as Homer was actually a woman.
Really? Awesome!! Greek women rock!!
Since when? I have studied Homer at University, and will most likely do again before I’m done, and have never come across “significant evidence” to suggest this. True, it was mentioned by my lecturer at the time if I recall, but it was never said that it was considered fact.
WOW fail list – trying to be intelligent FAIL, spelling FAIL, some people actually voted for this graph EPIC FAIL
Well English is my second language as I live in Europe and I’m not that good at it but if I was to make a graph or a caption for a picture I’d check it for errors twice before publishing it. It’s not that important that everything posted on the web such as my comment of this graph is correct, but it is important that the grammar in the graph is.
If it’s incorrect, it bothers some people
If it’s correct it doesn’t bother anyone.
Now those who don’t mind either way should be happy even if it is correct yes? So can we agree that it’s best for everybody if one puts some effort in stuff we publish for many to view?
And I didn’t think of Homeros at all because the caption said Homer. Why do Americans and English people always translate names? A name is a name right? You say Benjamin Franklin and not Ben Franky right? And Abraham Lincoln and not Abe Linc? It’s not like you lack the letters required to type Homeros? It’s not a 30 character long name with funny letters… It’s like… The Genoese explorer Christoffa Corombo was renamed Christopher Columbus. I do get Christoffa-Christopher it’s a minor change for a name everyone is familiar with but Corombo to Columbus… why? It’s not shorter it’s not easier… is it just for fun? Awfully sidetracked almost derailed here but anyway.
you talk english good.
to answer in short, names get translated because of the way the native speakers pronounce it. it’s not only english speakers who do this. go to the engrish section for more herp, i mean, help.
I always wondered this, as well, and I’m American. Lol.
With his misspelling of the “c” word (hee hee), I have no idea what he means. Does he mean to say that Homer influenced the way the world has been shaped, or does he mean that people talk about Homer in college history classes? OOOOORRRRRRRRRR….. does he mean to imply that historical events that transpired smoothly took no influence from Homer? I guess what I’m trying to say is, when you spell things correctly and use proper grammar, people always know what you mean. I’m not being serious, of course (spelled correctly). I’m 99% sure I know what he means.
You know what I’m thinking of right now? Homer in a toga
Hahaha
Cute joke
You’re still illiterate
What people think when they see this graph
“The creator of this graph cannot spell.”
personally I don’t care about philosophers or the Simpsons.. what about hitting a homer.. as in a home run? you all have your heads too stuck up in books to think about sports I guess… so if possible, I would add “a home run” along with “doh!” and whats his face poet guy..
p.s. agreed with the cannot spell comment..
Actually when I hear Homer I think of the town in Alaska.
Invented? Really now?
The terrible spelling amplified my LOL experience, to be honest.
dito
Arguing for literature and we can’t even correctly spell “course.”
All this debate about bad spelling…what really matter is that there is no apostrophe in DOH! I mean really people, WTF?!?
LOLZ!!
*matters
What about home run (baseball)?
redundancy fail
That’s probably because “Homer” is actually called Homeros, and pronounced completely differently (at least, that’s the case with me).
Scholars believe that “homer” may have been a generic name for a story-teller. Thus, it’s possible that there was no individual named “Homer.” Many story-tellers were blind – because there wasn’t a whole lot of work for blind people in those days. Hence the legend of the blind Homer.
Didn’t Al Gore win a Nobel Prize? This proves you don’t need to be a genius, just friggin good at your job. Excelciore!
As somebody who has never even seen The Simpsons (not a single episode in my entire life, and I’m 15) but has read the Iliad and the Odyssey three and four times each respectively, I never think of Homer Simpson when somebody mentions the name Homer. I always think of the poet. It disgusts and saddens me that in America today and parts of the world at large that people have never read true classics like these two books, and I hope that someday literacy will become “fashionable” again.
Um. Maybe people don’t read these books anymore – outside of school, where it’s required – is because they are boring. Just because something is influential doesn’t mean every single person should have to read it. I trust the classicists to keep this stuff alive; the rest of us can be spared.
The problem there is, of course, that less and less people go down the road that is Classics all the time.
And despite the fact that I haven’t read them (even though, as a Classicist I should have) I can tell you that they are far from boring. Since when are stories filled with war, magic and sex boring?
It disgusts and saddens me that in America today there are 15 year-olds who have never watched the true classic that is The Simpsons. I hope that someday, true comedy will become “fashionable” again.
LOL! This is exactly what I was thinking.
This reminds me of my junior high Latin teacher who would have a fit if anyone MENTIONED The Simpsons in her presence because in her opinion the show had ruined the name Homer (nevermind that Homer was actually Matt Groening’s dad’s name).
From my limited exposure to classical history, however, I recall that Homer the poet didn’t actually make any of that stuff up. He was a blind, illiterate entertainer who recounted traditional epics. Maybe he added his own flourish to the stories, but he didn’t write them. The only reason we remember his name is because he had the forethought to have someone write down the poems as he sang them.
Who the hells that greek guy? lol
should add a third input to this graph as a “homer” – home run in baseball. duh
Sadly, the dude that wrote the Illiad was called HOMEROS.
Όμηρος, if you want to be precise. Homer is not wrong. Just like the name George (America) and Georgios (Greece).
Aye, but it would only be in countries with english as native language he would be called Homer. So the majority of the world would be right in first thinking “dooh” when hearing the name Homer and “ahh the author of the illiad” when they hear the name Homeros.
And even in English speaking countries it shouldn’t be considered strange that Homer Simpson is more know since the Simpsons is a hugely popular modern series whereas Homeros is believed to be about 2500years ago and even though the work of Homeros(or believed being the works of homeros, it is still in dispute and many scientist believe there where several authors and not just Homeros) greatly effected Greek culture and thuss effecting most of the western culture it’s actuall impact as a current thing is minimal. As in the effect it’s had has already happened and it’s not lessened by young people of today not knowing about it just the same way as we’ve all long forgotten what influented people like Homeros and the people before that.
SO much fail in that caption. Ironic.
If anyone cares, “corse” is an archaic form of “corpse”. So maybe the graph maker is making some sort of comment on human history.
As a relapsing Simpson’saholic (I’m addicted to Simpson’sohol) the two things I think of first is Homer as Odysseus in one episode, and when someone mentions “Homer’s Odyssey”, and Homer waxes nostalgic about the minivan he rented with all the cup holders.
i love it!ADD ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
umm… Homer never wrote The Iliad. Virgil wrote The Iliad and Homer wrote The Odyssey.
my bad. I got confused with the Aeneid. sorry.
Uhm.. “corse”? No. so a D’oh for you.
1-coUrse
2- an epic poem should be considered a creation, not an invention
3- homer also supposedly created the odyssey(duh), not to mention a miriad of other works such as the batracomyomachia, the nostoi, the epigoni, the cypria, etc.
4- Homer could not have possibly “written” these poems because he was blind.
5- it is highly possible that the name of the poet who created these works wasn’t even “homer”
6- several theories conclude that homer was not, in fact, native to greece
7- “Homer” (or whatever his name was) may not have even created those works
8- It is heavily disputed as to whether “Homer” (or whatever his name was) ever even existed
9- the person who made this graph was obviously attempting to make themselves look more intelligent than the rest of the human species… but judging by the facts pointed out in my comment and the comments of others, the idoit just made a total dumbass out of themselves
10- the fact that i’m only 14 years old and i still know more than whatever pathetic person who made this chart is depressing
Your image was posted on a french website
http://lelombrik.net/images/23909/sondage-homer.html
God, i know exactly what you mean. i had to do a report about homer with a hand drawn pic. i search for ‘Homer the Greek Poet,’ and i get Homer Simpson with a beard
dood, you spelled ‘course’ wrong in yer graff!!!