Bust of Homer

This Roman bust follows the established Hellenistic type for Homer—an elderly, bearded poet with a fillet in his hair and a far-off, unfocused gaze evoking traditional blindness. Rather than a true likeness, it is an ‘authorized’ image: the face of epic itself, installed in libraries and galleries to honor Greek learning. Broad planes, drilled curls, and sober expression make the head read clearly in raking light. The marble is less portrait than emblem, a visual frontispiece for the Iliad and Odyssey within Rome’s culture of collected wisdom.