The Illiad/Oddessy-37

This one I had practically read already, I used to be obssesed with Greek mythology. So I had heard of most of the things from this out of context, reading them in their original form was interesting though

It's impossible to say that this book isn't a classic, it's so well known that almost everyone has heard of it, and many have read it. As for why it's a classic, well I suppose it is for largely the same reasons as Beowolf.

The stories themselves are interesting though, religious myths come from humanity trying to explain the things around them that they don't understand by attributing them to the gods. The siege of some city named Troy would hardly seem to be something unexplainable, wars aren't something you need gods to explain. Unless some unbelievable things happened in this siege. The fact that it lasted 10 years certainly seems unbeleivable, name one city that has ever had the provisions to feed it's entire population for 10 years straight without being able to resupply. I bet you can't, even with modern technology making it easier to store food for long periods of time, it's simply preposterous.

To add to that the battles that are described are ripe with divine intervention. Certainly some amazing things must have been happening to invoke the names of all these meddling gods at once. What could possibly have inspired these myths? Certainly these things couldn't actually have happened, but then where is the basis for these fantastic tales of this old religion?

I don't remember any details, but I vaugely remember this topic being covered on the History Channel, where they had found a city that resembled what might have once been Troy. It was patchy guesswork at best I assume, but I never watched the program. It does mean that there are researchers who are curious about what this book was based on though, so it isn't just me drawing these conclusions.

Well that's all I have to say about this one, so farewell!