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The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.
Along with the Odyssey, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature. It also provides a unique insight into both Greek history and the formation of a Greek identity.
A propos de l'auteur
Homer is the name ascribed by the Ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the central works of Greek literature. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. The modern scholarly consensus is that these traditions do not have any historical value.The importance of Homer to the ancient Greeks is described in Plato's Republic, where he is referred to as the protos didaskalos, "first teacher", of tragedy, the hegemon paideias, "leader of learning" and the one who ten Hellada pepaideuken, "has taught Greece". Homer's works, which are about fifty percent speeches, provided models in persuasive speaking and writing that were emulated throughout the ancient and medieval Greek worlds. Fragments of Homer account for nearly half of all identifiable Greek literary papyrus finds in Egypt.
