When did Homer write the odyssey?

Homer likely composed The Odyssey in the eighth century B.C., but some scholars date it to the sixth century B.C. The dates are difficult to determine because scholars are not certain that a poet called Homer truly existed.

Despite the unknown identity of Homer, scholars are fairly certain that The Odyssey, like The Iliad, was composed during ancient Greece's Dark Age, a time when writing was lost and stories were memorized and recited without reading. These two major works of ancient poetry were only written down when writing returned to Greece decades, or possibly centuries, after the poem was composed.