Abstract
The figure of Homer in Raphael's “Parnassus” is singular for the combination of blindness, divine inspiration, improvisational song, and an amanuensis to immortalize the performance. This article examines humanist biographies of Homer to identify the pre-text of Raphael's Homer and to determine if it reflects the political influence of Julius II. Though no one source can be asked to bear such responsibility, the article gestures to the doctrine of divine madness in Laurentian Florence, in which vatic authority derives from Apollo. Raphael may have therefore conceived of Homer as Apollo's priest to give visual endorsement to Julius's Apollinian ideology.
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