which of these classical texts have you read?
the iliad, the odyssey, and the aeneid
the iliad and the odyssey, not the aeneid
the iliad only
the odyssey only
the aeneid only
the aeneid and the iliad, not the odyssey
the aeneid and the odyssey, not the iliad
I have read none of these
"what if I've read part of it" if it's a large enough part that you would consider yourself to Have Read It in general contexts, then it counts. if it's not, then it doesn't. only you can be the judge of that, but I'm not giving you a nuance button.
any translations count, but abridged retellings don't
obviously, there are lots of other classical texts out there. you might have read none of these and be an expert on greek tragedy. I'm not judging your classical knowledge so you don't need to tell me all that. I'm just curious about combos of these specific texts and their popularity, bc a post i just saw got me thinking about it
#i want to hear from the 1.7% who have read the illiad and the aenied but not the odyssey #<- SAME #you read everything EXCEPT the most iconic story?? #how?? why?? (via @shrinkthisviolet and prev @bobakick)
hi it's me op that's my combo!
firstly, i don't think i've ever particularly thought of the odyssey as more iconic than the iliad, so that's the exact kind of cultural attitude towards the texts that prompted me to make this poll; it seemed from conversations that @postarcadian was having in the notes of related posts that in north america at least, it's very dominant, but i wanted to see how widespread this was. i think this particular dominance or preference is not global. in england, for example, you wouldn't read the odyssey in school unless a) your school offered classical civilisation as an elective subject (already a minority of schools) and b) opted to do the odyssey-specific module (only one of lots of modules). if they don't do class civ, you probably wouldn't read any ancient texts in school!
my school did class civ but not the odyssey module, so it never came up, which brings me onto:
this is the module for which i read the aeneid and the iliad when i was 17 and in secondary school. we read the whole thing although the commentary passages were from selected books. the odyssey was not relevant to this module and we did not have time to read it unnecessarily. but you can see based on the themes and focus of the modules why the aeneid-iliad combo would be chosen!
(sidenote to the person in the notes who said they think you need graduate level study to understand the cultural context and references in the aeneid... i don't think you do? they're teaching this to 17-year-olds reading in translation with no latin background? i mean, obviously if you do it at a graduate level you're going to understand it more and in greater depth and get more nuance and whatever. but it's not Impossible To Comprehend The Aeneid And Its Themes as a layperson. can attest that 17-year-old me managed it well enough)
now obviously i'm 30 now so there's been loads of time to read the odyssey since then for funsies. and i've had it in my house since 2018. and i've started it multiple times. and i just can't get through it tbh. one day i'll get there maybe. but as a medievalist the latin texts were always a lot more relevant (medieval authors primarily had access to the classical world via latin) and i work on heroic literature of a very particular sort so i've ended up more in the aeneid - statius - latin histories end of things insofar as i look at anything classical (which isn't very much)
i have however read Merugud Uilix which is the medieval irish version of the odyssey and which is completely bonkers and absurd and absolutely nothing like the actual Odyssey
and finally there's an extent to which when something is very culturally well-known you just kinda take it in via osmosis and then it feels less compelling to read the original. like i read a bunch of retellings as a small child i think? and things like Ithaka by Adele Geras. and that filled the niche. that was enough odyssey for me. wasn't really fussed. maybe one day i'll get through the rest of the real thing though.
just reblogging this again with some additional context:
as far as the Ancient Greeks were concerned, the Iliad was THE epic poem. the story of the Trojan War was The foundational myth cycle and the Iliad was The Trojan War poem. it was & tbh is generally considered to be the superior of the two. if I HAD to say which one is more 'iconic' I would point to the Iliad.
I think it's fair to say, the reason the Odyssey has become so widely studied at school level is because it is, to be blunt, 'easier'. it is structurally much more like a modern novel, it has a relatable protagonist in Odysseus, it's got a bunch of fantasy adventures in it, many of which are straightforward stories w clear and easy to understand metaphors and/or morals.
the Iliad in contrast is, if you like, a 'true' epic poem? it doesn't really have a conventional A->B->C plot and a lot of it is 'guys you've never heard of killing other guys you've never heard of'. I would say it is significantly more esoteric. Speaking from personal experience: i read both as a teenager and had a massively easier time with the Odyssey.
in terms of the emotional impact of them as works, obviously YMMV but to me, the Odyssey is a fun romp and the Iliad is like getting hit by a truck.
anyway in short, I don't think it's accurate to say the Odyssey is 'more iconic'. I think it's just a very popular choice for USAmerican school curricula.
