The consensus is that " the Iliad and the Odyssey date from around the 8th century BC, the Iliad being composed before the Odyssey, perhaps by some decades ," i. e. earlier than Hesiod, the Iliad being the oldest work of Western literature.

Most scholars agree that the Iliad and Odyssey underwent a process of standardisation and refinement out of older material beginning in the 8th century BC.

740 BC, appears to refer to a text of the Iliad ; likewise, illustrations seemingly inspired by the Polyphemus episode in the Odyssey are found on Samos, Mykonos and in Italy, dating from the first quarter of the seventh century BC.

* Codex Nitriensis, a volume containing a work of Severus of Antioch of the beginning of the 9th century is written on palimpsest leaves taken from 6th century manuscripts of the Iliad and the Gospel of St Luke, both of the 6th century, and the Euclid's Elements of the seventh or 8th century, British Museum

In the seventh century BC, Hesiod, both in his Theogony ( briefly, without naming Pandora outright, line 570 ) and in Works and Days, gives the earliest literary version of the Pandora story ; however, there is an older mention of jars or urns containing blessings and evils bestowed upon mankind in Homer's Iliad:

The armor described in 1 Samuel 17 is typical of Greek armor of the sixth century BC rather than of Philistines armor of the tenth century, and narrative formulae such as the settlement of battle by single combat between champions is characteristic of the Homeric epics ( the Iliad ) but not of the ancient Near East.

Europa's earliest literary reference is in the Iliad, which is commonly dated to the 8th century BCE.

It is unknown exactly when and how the Mausoleum came to ruin, but according to Eustathius in the 12th century on his commentary of the Iliad, " it was and is a wonder ".

The scholarly consensus is, that " the Iliad and the Odyssey date from the extreme end of the ninth century BC or from the eighth, the Iliad being anterior to the Odyssey, perhaps by some decades.

-Homer, Iliad 9. 556 ; 8th century b. C.

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey date to the 8th century BC and mark the beginning of Classical Antiquity.

Until the late 19th century, literary criticism as an academic exercise dealt solely with poetry ( including epic poems like the Iliad and Paradise Lost, and poetic drama like Shakespeare ).

During this period he started his translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey into blank verse, and his versions ( published in 1791 ) were the most significant English renderings of these epic poems since those of Alexander Pope earlier in the century, although later critics have faulted Cowper's Homer for being too much in the mold of John Milton.

Lachmann's Betrachtungen über Homer's Iliad, first published in the Abhandlungen of the Berlin Academy in 1837 and 1841, in which he sought to show that the Iliad consists of eighteen independent " layers " variously enlarged and interpolated, had considerable influence on 19th century Homeric scholarship, although his views are no longer accepted.

Eustathius of Thessalonica in his 12th century commentary on the Iliad, wrote that the inhabitants of Thule were at war with a dwarf-like stature tribe only 20 fingers in height.

Famous individuals connected with Edessa include: Jacob Baradaeus, the real chief of the Syriac Miaphysites known after him as Jacobites ; Stephen Bar Sudaïli, monk and pantheist, to whom was owing, in Palestine, the last crisis of Origenism in the 6th century ; Jacob, Bishop of Edessa, a fertile writer ( d. 708 ); Theophilus the Maronite, an astronomer, who translated into Syriac verse Homer's Iliad and Odyssey ; the anonymous author of the Chronicon Edessenum ( Chronicle of Edessa ), compiled in 540 ; the writer of the story of " The Man of God ", in the 5th century, which gave rise to the legend of St. Alexius, also known as Alexius of Rome ( because exiled Eastern monks brought his cult and bones to Rome in the 10th century ).

Though it is not easy to apply the evidence of the Iliad to any specific era, this marvelous product of the epic tradition had certainly taken definitive shape by 750.

That such a tradition lies behind The Iliad and The Odyssey, at least, is hard to deny.

One of the greatest Homerists of our time, Frederick M. Combellack, argues that when it is assumed The Iliad and The Odyssey are oral poems, the postulated single redactor called Homer cannot be either credited with or denied originality in choice of phrasing.

Thus one line in five from The Iliad and The Odyssey is to be found somewhere else in the two poems.

" In other words, Achilles is an embodiment of the grief of the people, grief being a theme raised numerous times in the Iliad ( frequently by Achilles ).

The function of Apollo as a " healer " is connected with Paean ( Παιών-Παιήων ), the physician of the Gods in the Iliad, who seems to come from a more primitive religion.

In the Iliad, Apollo is the healer under the gods, but he is also the bringer of disease and death with his arrows, similar to the function of the terrible Vedic god of disease Rudra.

He demanded her return, and the Achaeans complied, indirectly causing the anger of Achilles, which is the theme of the Iliad.

He is a character in Greek mythology and is mentioned in Homer's Iliad, and receives full treatment in Roman mythology as the legendary founder of what would become Ancient Rome, most extensively in Virgil's Aeneid.

In the Iliad, Aeneas is a minor character, where he is twice saved from death by the gods as if for an as yet unknown destiny.

He is a significant figure in Homer's Iliad and is also mentioned in the Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid.

When the grammatical dual form of Ajax is used in the Iliad, it was once believed that it indicated the lesser Ajax fighting side-by-side with Telamonian Ajax, but now it is generally thought that that usage refers to the Greater Ajax and his brother Teucer.

In Homer's Iliad he is described as of great stature, colossal frame and strongest of all the Achaeans.

Most notably, Ajax is not wounded in any of the battles described in the Iliad, and he is the only principal character on either side who does not receive personal assistance from any of the gods who take part in the battles.

In the Iliad, Ajax is notable for his abundant strength and courage, seen particularly in two fights with Hector.

Like most of the other Greek leaders, Ajax is alive and well as the Iliad comes to a close.

The identification of Ajax with the family of Aeacus was chiefly a matter which concerned the Athenians, after Salamis had come into their possession, on which occasion Solon is said to have inserted a line in the Iliad ( 2. 557 – 558 ), for the purpose of supporting the Athenian claim to the island.

In the Iliad, the character Paris is known also as Alexander.

The tomb of Myrine is mentioned in the Iliad ; later interpretation made of her an Amazon: according to Diodorus, Queen Myrine led her Amazons to victory against Libya and much of Gorgon.

In Homer's Iliad, the horses of the Myrmidons graze on wild celery that grows in the marshes of Troy, and in Odyssey, there is mention of the meadows of violet and wild celery surrounding the cave of Calypso.

Another mention of Hector's exploits in the early years of war was given in the Iliad book 9.

There is also mention of an Alaksandu, suggested to be Paris Alexander ( King Priam's son from the Iliad ), a later ruler of the city of Wilusa who established peace between Wilusa and Hatti ( see the Alaksandu treaty ).

In ancient Greece, the earliest mention of oratorical skill occurs in Homer's Iliad, where heroes like Achilles, Hektor, and Odysseus were honored for their ability to advise and exhort their peers and followers ( the Laos or army ) in wise and appropriate action.

The earliest written mention of horai is in the Iliad where they appear as keepers of Zeus's cloud gates.

The earliest recorded mention of Chalcis is in the Iliad ( 2. 537 ), where it is mentioned in the same line as its rival Eretria.

Other prints worthy of mention are those by Mariano Fortuny, many of them related to his period in Morocco, the two series of the Essays in Etching by Carlos de Haes and various works by Joaquín Pi i Margall, namely, The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Days and The Theogony or The Divine Comedy.

Their first mention is by Homer, in his list of Trojans allies in the Iliad, and according to whom the Mysians fought in the Trojan War on the side of Troy, under the command of Chromis and Ennomus the Auger, and were lion-hearted spearmen who fought with their bare hands.

The earliest surviving mention of Eretria was by Homer ( Iliad 2. 537 ), who listed Eretria as one of the Greek cities which sent ships to the Trojan War.

Homer ( Iliad, book II, line 848 ) speaks of Paeonians from the Axios fighting on the side of the Trojans, but the Iliad does not mention whether the Paeonians were kin to the Trojans.

Upon a reading of the Iliad, where the residents of the Peloponnesus and adjacent islands are often called Achaeans, and taking into account mention of the Ahhiyawa in Hittite sources from the Late Bronze Age, the theory suggests itself that the Mycenaeans could possibly even be Achaeans.

Connection of the mention of a King of the Ahhiyawa in Hittite sources with the King of the Achaeans, the Mycenaean king Agamemnon of the Iliad, rests on the insecure foundations of an Ahhiyawa / Achaean identity ; the very location of the Ahhiyawa kingdom remains a matter for debate ; it has been suggested it may have been in Asia Minor, Rhodes or Peloponesus.

For example, in the Iliad and sections of the Old Testament no mention is made of any kind of cognitive processes such as introspection, and there is no apparent indication that the writers were self-aware.