In what ancient language was The Odyssey composed?

The Odyssey was composed in Homeric Greek, the literary form of Ancient Greek used for epic poetry.

Homeric Greek is not simply the everyday Greek spoken in one city or period. It is an artificial poetic language built mainly on Ionic Greek, with important Aeolic features and older forms preserved by oral tradition. Its vocabulary and grammar were shaped to fit the needs of singers performing long heroic poems.

The poem emerged from centuries of oral composition and performance before reaching its written form, probably around the late eighth or seventh century BC. This helps explain why The Odyssey contains recurring phrases, stock epithets such as “rosy-fingered Dawn,” and repeated narrative scenes.

Attic Greek is a related but distinct dialect associated with Athens, while Sanskrit and Latin belong to different linguistic traditions. The term “Homeric Greek” therefore identifies both the language of the poem and its distinctive epic style.