The Iliad and The Odyssey Based on stories first told over

3000 years ago in what is now Greece

The stories are about a great war that took place around 1200 B.C.

Homer gathered the stories into two Epics: The Iliad and The Odyssey

The Iliad and The Odyssey Homer- blind poet who told the Iliad and the Odyssey in 700 BC in Greece. He combined fiction, human experience and expert story-telling to create historical fiction. Homer would sing his poems to help him remember them. The Iliad tells about the last year of the 10 year Trojan War that took place around 1200 B.C.

The Iliad and The Odyssey The war started when Helen,

who was the wife of King Menelaus of Greece, ran away to Troy with Paris, the Prince of Troy

After 10 years of war, Odysseus came up with the idea for the Trojan Horse – a trick that enabled the Greeks (Spartans) to defeat the Trojans.

The Iliad and The Odyssey Homer’s second Epic, The

Odyssey, tells of Odysseus’ ten year struggle to get from Troy to his home in Ithaca, Greece.

Odysseus was different from other heroes of Homer’s day-he was a hero in trouble.

Themes for the Odyssey Loyalty, devotion and fortitude The Greek idea of a strong body

and a strong mind The wandering hero Triumph of good over evil Obedience to the laws of the gods