Smyrna
At Smyrna, Homer appears in two kinds of memory. Strabo records the city’s claim to the poet and describes the Homereion, a portico with a shrine and wooden statue; he also names a bronze coin called a Homereion. Pausanias preserves a separate local story about a grotto by the Meles springs where people said Homer composed his poems.
Photograph unavailableİzmir · Harbour memory
A poet claimed by the city
Strabo writes that Smyrnaeans especially claimed Homer as their poet. The emphasis is on belonging: Smyrna placed the poet among its own. The passage preserves a civic memory, not a biography of Homer.
The Homereion and its coin
Strabo describes the Homereion as a portico with a shrine and wooden statue of Homer. In the same passage, he mentions a bronze coin called a Homereion. Homer’s name appears here in civic forms: a portico, a statue and a coin bearing the shrine’s name.
The river and the grotto story
Strabo places the Meles near Smyrna’s city walls. Pausanias preserves a local story: Homer was said to have composed his poems in a grotto at the river’s springs. The river appears in two ways—near the walls in Strabo, and beside the grotto in Pausanias’s account.
One name, distinct memories
Strabo’s Homereion and the coin name place Homer within civic life; Pausanias ties a separate composition story to the Meles springs. Read Smyrna within Ionia and Aeolis, or compare its civic memory with Teos. The two accounts keep public claim and local story distinct.
Homer’s name in Smyrna
A shrine and coin put Homer’s name into Smyrna’s civic space. Pausanias’s river-side grotto belongs to a different register: a local story of poetry at the springs.
Connected stops
Stories that include this stop
Sources
Frequently asked questions
Where is Smyrna?
Smyrna is presented in this guide as a harbour memory in İzmir.
How can I find sources for Smyrna?
The Sources section links to the evidence supporting this dossier.