Iliad or Odyssey or does it matter?

[motherhubbard]

I have not read The Iliad or The Odyssey. Does it matter which I read first?

[Dark Star]

I would suggest reading The Iliad first since it's the first chronologically.

[Dori]

I haven't read them either, but I would read The Iliad first. I don't think it matters though, considering there is a time gap in between the two epics. There is a book the bridges the two together: The War at Troy by Qunitus of Smyrna.

Also, if you're interested, Virgil's The Aeneid is contemporaneous with The Odyssey. Thus, if it were me, I would read them in this order:

The Iliad -> The War at Troy -> The Odyssey -> The Aeneid

But, the choice is yours and I will leave it to you to decide whether to accept or neglect my advice.

[crisaor]

Read The Iliad first.

[motherhubbard]

Thanks everyone.

[manolia]

In greek schools "The Odyssey" is taught first (linguistic reasons). I'd begin with "The odyssey"

[Granny5]

I have not read The Iliad or The Odyssey. Does it matter which I read first?

Ask Stevie....if anyone would know, he would.

[papayahed]

Although both are good I'd read the Odyssy first, it's more of a straightforward story wheras a good deal of The Illiad is dscriptions of battles.

[bluevictim]

It's true that the Iliad is set chronologically before the Odyssey, but in my opinion it doesn't make much of a difference which one you read first. Before reading either of them, I would recommend reading a brief synopsis of the Trojan War; most of the original audience would already know the basic stories beforehand.

The Odyssey does tend to be more accessible because its plot is more action packed and varied, so it might be a good choice to read first. If you only read one of the two epics in your lifetime, though, I would recommend the Iliad over the Odyssey.

[aabbcc]

In literature classes, we studied ancient Greek and Roman literature each as a separated unit, not contemporary (so before starting anything Roman we had to finish everything Greek that was in the curriculum), and when we studied Greek literature, the Iliad was read first, then Odyssey, then all the rest (we studied it chronologically).

However, being also taught classical languages, the situation was a bit different there. We started with Iliad in sense that the first things we had to memorise and/or translate were excerpts from Iliad, and in general we first spoke of it, but then we proceeded onto Odyssey without having done Iliad "properly", and we did a whole lot of Odyssey before returning to parts of Iliad, so in the end it ended up that we basically did them contemporary. Lesser part of it matched when we studied the same thing in Literature classes, though our classics classes were always strictly separated from Literature classes.
Aeneid we studied in Latin - accidentally or not, I never figured - contemporary with Odyssey.
I must note that in classics classes we never studied literature chronologically, though we did study the whole lot of theory and history of Greek and Roman literature, but the texts we were taught and the order of them was chosen based on linguistic reasons rather than chronological ones.

Personally, I prefer Odyssey greatly, and if I were to start with something now, it would definitely be it.
What did you decide? (As this reply is so late that you have probably read it by now )

[Virgil]

Both are great for different reasons. I think you might enjoy the Odyssey more. Most modern readers seem to. But I think The Illiad is the greater work, a masterpiece of different characters and a perfection in plotting. The themes too are more complex.

Which translation are you reading? I prefer the Robert Fagles translations, but Robert Fitzgerald does a decent job too.

[applepie]

Both are great for different reasons. I think you migght enjoy the Odyssey more. Most modern readers seem to. But I think The Illiad is the greater work, a masterpiece of different character and a perfection in plotting. The themes too are more complex.

Which translation are you reading? I prefer the Robert Fagles translations, but Robert Fitzgerald does a decent job too.

I think that you put it very well. I prefer to read the Odyssey for fun, because there is more to like about it. Everyone likes a good adventure story, and the Odyssey delivers on that. As far as diffuculty and such, the Illiad is the more difficult of the works to read. You must think much harder, and, Like Virgil said, the themes are more complex. They're both good, but if you want to read for fun I would say go with the Odyssey. If you are looking for something that will really expand your capabilities with literature then the Illiad is the better of the two.

[Ami616]

in my opinion after reading both of the books original copys many times, i would read the Odyssey first because of the fact that in the original copy homer goes into more detail about what happens during the trojan war.
but thats my opinion.