Montblanc created this pen in 2018 in honour of Homer (c.800 BC – c.701 BC), in a limited and numbered edition of 9 800 examples. The twenty-seventh of Montblanc’s “Writers Edition”.

The pen’s design evokes Homeric poems. The body and cap are crafted from precious black resin, which, combined with the champagne-coloured gold finishes, are reminiscent of Greek black-figure pottery often decorated with scenes from Homer’s writings. The clip is inspired by Achilles’ spear that he brandishes against Troy.

The ball-point-pen was produced in a limited and numbered edition of … 000 examples.

The mechanical pencil was produced in a limited and numbered edition of … 000 examples.

A set of three writing instruments, comprising a fountain-pen, a ball-point-pen and a mechanical pencil, was produced in a limited and numbered edition of … 000 examples.

--

Homer (ancient Greek, Hómēros)

Circa 800 BC – circa 701 BC

The presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are the foundational works of ancient Greek literature. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy. Many accounts of Homer’s life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.

The Homeric Question – concerning by whom, when, where and under what circumstances the Iliad and Odyssey were composed – continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion falls into two groups. One holds that most of the Iliad and (according to some) the Odyssey are the works of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the result of a process of working and reworking by many contributors, and that “Homer” is best seen as a label for an entire tradition. It is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC. The poems are in Homeric Greek, also known as Epic Greek, a literary language which shows a mixture of features of the Ionic and Aeolic dialects from different centuries; the predominant influence is Eastern Ionic. Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally. From antiquity until the present day, the influence of Homeric epic on Western civilization has been great, inspiring many of its most famous works of literature, music, art and film. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education; to Plato, Homer was simply the one who “has taught Greece” – ten Hellada pepaideuken.