I've just read The Iliad and The Odyssey (Robert Fitzgerald translations) and have been really surprised by how much of their influence I can see around me in Western culture, especially literature. I would like to read more about how these texts or similar 'origin texts' have or have not shaped the West. Am I even right to think of them as 'origin texts' of the Roman/Western world? Does the West look and behave the way it does today because so much of its culture is influenced by these texts, or do these texts look the way they do because the seeds of the West had already taken shape in Ancient Greece and that's how it looked? What are the East's origin texts? Do I just think they are important and see their influence everywhere because the world I live in is also the one they influenced, albeit a far smaller world in actuality than I might think..
I am an adult learner studying and reading in my limited free time. Don't assume I've read much! Opinions and recommendations for further reading equally much appreciated.