Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79.

Introductory to Greece

On Homer’s Birthplace

By Antipater of Sidon (fl. c. 100 B.C.)

Translated by J. H. Merivale

FROM Colophon some deem thee sprung,

From Smyrna some, and some from Chios;

These noble Salamis have sung,

While those proclaim thee born in Ios;

And others cry up Thessaly

The mother of the Lapithæ.

Thus each to Homer has assigned

The birthplace just which suits his mind.

But, if I read the volume right,

By Phœbus to his followers given,

I ’d say they ’re all mistaken quite,

And that his real country ’s heaven;

While for his mother, she can be

No other than Calliope.