One can easily classify all works of fiction either as descendants of the Iliad or of the Odyssey.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Fiction has consisted either of placing imaginary characters in a true story, which is the Iliad, or of presenting the story of an individual as having a general historical value, which is the Odyssey.
'The Odyssey' is the great tale, and I was really taken by 'The Iliad,' so I dig into those things, and when I was a kid I didn't. You've gotta have a certain level of understanding yourself before that stuff really starts to resonate.
It's hard to write a war story without thinking about the 'Iliad.' Because the 'Iliad' knows everything about war.
Epic stories, especially 'quest narratives' like 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey,' are brilliant structures for storytelling. The quest lends itself to episodic storytelling.
The author of the Iliad is either Homer or, if not Homer, somebody else of the same name.
I don't generally read a lot of fiction.
I love fiction because in fiction you go into the thoughts of people, the little people, the people who were defeated, the poor, the women, the children that are never in history books.
Most fiction comes from your experience.
I don't read a great deal of fiction, to my shame, other than the classics.
The Odyssey is, indeed, one of the greatest of all stories, it is the original romance of the West; but the Iliad, though a magnificent poem, is not much of a story.