Even while the Greeks were emerging from their Dark Ages after the fall of Mycenae (c Literature 1200-750 BC), when they produced their greatest poet, Homer. Most modern scholars think that Homer’s two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were composed around 750 BC. It was almost certainly first composed in oral form before being written perhaps a hundred years later. These poems have been studied by western scholars ever since. Later poets included Hesiod (7th century BC), whose “Works and Days” portrays the tough life of an ordinary farmer; Sappho (6th century BC), whose love poetry uses beauty...