The iliad was written in the 4th century BC and is considered one of the most important works of ancient Greek literature. The author, Nick Clegg, says that it helped to shape our culture as we know it today. He also argues that this work gave birth to everything modern history stands for - from fiction to science.
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The history of the Trojan War, assiduously studied and thoroughly documented today, was passed down through the centuries not by academic text, but by oral tradition. The conduit for communication, rather than scholarly prose, was the campfire poetry best told in the Iliad by Homer, author of the other great Greek epic The Odyssey. How much of the details of the story were true, such as the role of the Gods, versus artistic embellishment are of less import, but rather how the stories and myths of such great events – incorporating the essentials of love, lust, power and corruption – proved equally a reflection as much as an influence on the foundations of culture in the ancient Greek world and by extension the greater West.
