HOMERIDS

Latin Homeridae, a historical clan whose members claimed to be descendants of the ancient Greek poet Homer. They claimed to have brought the Iliad and Odyssey attributed to him from Ionia to the Greek mainland, as early as the 6th century BC. They may have preserved texts of poems ascribed to Homer. Originally, they were rhapsodists, singer-reciters of Homeric epics; but by the 4th century BC they had apparently ceased to perform and had become judges of rhapsodists competing at the Panathenaea. Authorship of a few Homeric Hymns, preludes, and mythical tales of the gods has been attributed to them.