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This collection includes both of the greatest Greek stories ever told and numbers amongst the most important works of Western literature. "The Illiad" is Homer's legendary account of the Trojan War, an epic battle that took place over three thousand years ago and had a significant impact on world history. "The Odyssey" follows the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca and his voyage back home following the cessation of the Trojan War. Translated into English prose by Samuel Butler and including several essays and writings on both Homer and the Epics, this book is a must have for any lovers of history and literature and would make a perfect addition to any book shelf. Homer was the author of the two epic poems upon which the works of ancient Greek literature are predicated, the ¿Iliad¿ and the ¿Odyssey¿. Though Homer is regarded as being among the greatest and most influential writers of all time, the question of when, where and by whom the ¿Illiad¿ and ¿Odyssey¿ were written remains unanswered¿although most scholars agree that they were both written around the late eighth or early seventh century BC. For thousands of years the influence of the Homeric epic has had on Western civilization has been significant, having inspired a large number of its most famous works of art, literature, and film.
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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.
