The Complete Works of Homer

The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education; to Plato, Homer was simply the one who «has taught Greece» The Iliad and the Odyssey are the foundational works of ancient Greek literature. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy. From antiquity until the present day, the influence of Homeric epic on Western civilization has been great, inspiring many of its most famous works of literature, music, art and film. The Homeric Hymns is a collection of thirty-three ancient Greek hymns celebrating individual gods. The hymns employ the same epic meter—dactylic hexameter—as the Iliad and Odyssey, use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect.