Throughout the Iliad there is a deep sense that everything that will come to pass is already fated to happen. For Homer, the Trojan War was already an old story passed down for generations, and the poem is presented from the very beginning as a completed story, “the will of Zeus …moving toward its end.” In the lives of men, the gods are powerful enough to act as fate, spurring them …

Classical Texts Library >> Homer, Odyssey >> Book 1 HOMER, ODYSSEY 1. HOMER was a semi-legendary Greek poet from Ionia who the Greeks ascribed with the composition of their greatest epics--The Iliad and The Odyssey. The exact date of these works is disputed by modern scholars but they are usually placed in the C8th or C7th B.C.

His most distinguishing trait, however, is his sharp intellect. Odysseus’s quick thinking helps him out of some very tough situations, as when he escapes from the cave of the Cyclops in Book 9, or when he hides his slaughter of the suitors by having his minstrel strike up a wedding tune in Book 23. He is also a convincing, articulate speaker ...