Where to Buy
Affiliate links coming soon. Purchases will help support this project.
Read / Listen Free
The Iliad
10Homer
Homer founded Western literature in this poem, a portrait of human rage so exact that no later epic — from Virgil to Tolstoy — has escaped its shadow.
GBM Assessment (Score: 10/10)
The Iliad stands as the foundation of Western literature, establishing the themes of kleos (glory), mortality, and divine wrath that define the entire heroic tradition. Homer's portrayal of Achilles' rage and its devastating consequences created a literary and moral framework that every subsequent Western author has engaged with, making it arguably the single most important work in the Western canon.
Situated during the Trojan War, the Iliad was performed at the Panathenaia festival in Athens and became central to Greek education and identity. Alexander the Great famously carried a copy on his military campaigns. The poem has been continuously studied for over 2,800 years. Its influence extends into modern culture through adaptations such as the film Troy (2004).
Archaic Greece, c. 750-700 BC
Greece emerges from its Dark Age. City-states form. Colonization spreads Greek settlements from the Black Sea to Sicily. The Olympic Games begin (traditionally 776 BC). Homer composes the Iliad and Odyssey from centuries of oral tradition, giving Europe its founding literary works. Hesiod provides the first systematic Greek theology. Rome is a cluster of huts on the Palatine Hill.
Awards & Adaptations
Continuously studied 2800 yrs. Film: Troy (2004). Core at Princeton, Oxford, St. John's.
Recommended Edition
A.T. Murray (Loeb 1924); A. Pope (1715-20)
