Introduction

‘Homer a native of Izmir. The city’s gateway to culture’: these words are emblazoned on the cover of the leading monthly Izmir Life. ¹ The magazine’s February 2008 edition formed a platform for prominent members of society to consider and reflect how to demonstrate Homer’s fundamental importance to Izmir’s identity: Turkey’s third most populous city, located on the Gulf of Izmir (Aegean Sea). The ideas advanced here provide an insight into Izmir’s appropriation of the Homeric heritage. The discussions focus on the importance of building monuments to Homer in the city, establishing academic and popular institutions for Homeric research and exploring the city’s tangible Homeric heritage more intensively, such as Homer’s caves and the Homer monument at the Yeşildere Delta, on which a quote attributed to Homer states: ‘I was born in the lap of Izmir, where the Meles joins the sea’ (Fig. 4).