Turmeric has been used for thousands of years as a medicinal preparation and a preservative and coloring agent in foods. Curcumin was isolated as the major yellow pigment in turmeric; chemically diferulomethane, and has a polyphenolic molecular structure similar to other plant pigments (eg.
The Odyssey by Homer Written 800 B.C.E. Context. NEARLY THREE THOUSAND YEARS after they were composed, the Iliad and theOdyssey remain two of the most celebrated and widely read stories ever told, yet next to nothing is known about their author.
During the bronze age, the Minoans of Crete and later the Mycenaean Greeks must also have made voyages within the Mediterranean. The Homeric poems (written several hundred years later by Homer, as the Iliad and Odyssey), describe events around 1200 BC, and involve fairly extensive sea voyages (at least for that era).