 Some may be fragments of longer poems, but evidently they are not the work of any one poet.The fact that they were all ascribed to Homer merely means that they belong to a period in the history of the Ionian and Aeolian colonies when Homer was a name which drew to itself all ancient and popular verse.Again, comparing the epigrams with the legends and anecdotes told in the "Lives of Homer," one can hardly doubt that they were the chief source from which these "Lives" were derived.