Everything You Need to Know About The Iliad and The Odyssey

Explains the major themes, characters, and plots of both epics. Includes historic artwork depicting important scenes in The Iliad and The Odyssey. Discusses the historical basis of Homer, the Trojan War, and Ancient Greek culture. "Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, / Now green in youth, now withering on the ground; Another race the following spring supplies: They fall successive, and successive rise." - The Iliad "Tell me, Muse, of the man of many wiles." - The Odyssey, Book I, Line 1 Perhaps the most famous epic poems ever written, the Iliad and the Odyssey have been read for nearly 3,000 years, making them the oldest written works in the Western world. The poems made characters like Paris, Helen, Odysseus, Achilles, Hector, and Ajax instantly recognizable, and they also influenced other ancient poets like Virgil, whose Aeneid is clearly modeled after them. The epic poems also literally put Troy on the map, motivating Heinrich Schliemann to search for and ultimately fin