Homer, the greatest poet of the Greeks, whose work, dating back to the 7th century, lived on at the heart of their culture, inspired sculptors to come up with several imaginary portraits. This one, rendering him as a blind old man, his head encircled with a band, must have been created in bronze during the 2nd century BC, in the wake of the Pergamene style. The numerous Roman copies reveal nothing of the complete statue, which surely represented him seated. The poet's physical degeneration only accentuates his inspired nobility and his visionary depth.