Has anyone read the Illad by Homer and if so..is the Illad supposed to be a religious text?

Question

I was just wondering about it. I hear it is based on mythology but, I don't understand all the dynamics of mythology really. Is it a belief system or is it some kind of metaphoric way of viewing the world?

Answer 1

Well a lot of questions you have there! You could consider the Illiad a religious text if you were member of a certain religious society that believes in the 12 gods of Olympus. Homer 's Illiad for the rest of the world was considered to be part of the ancient greek mythology, which is a kind of storytelling about legends having to do with almost everything( the creation of the world, the ancient greek gods, heroes) and in a way it is part of the greek civilization and probably the way the the world was interpreted by the ancestors of the Greeks. Yet the Illiad, after the discovering of Troys ruins by an archeologist named Schlimman(i hope i spelled it right), could not be consider either as mythology nor as history. So the archeology and historical research try to read the secrets hidden among the lines of Illiad

Answer 2

You can download an english translation here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2199

I haven't read it the original, only simplified children's versions of the story line in both Greek and English. It's not a religious text, but it does assume the religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks at the time. So it doesn't try and teach you about Zeus and Hera, for instance, but the author assumed that that Olympian couple existed and had influence over the affairs of the world.

Greek mythology was indeed a religion belief system of the ancient Greeks. They believed that the world was created by Gaia and Ouranos (or something like that), and that it eventually passed into the control of twelve immortal beings, six gods and six goddesses. These gods ruled from Mount Olympus over the affairs of mankind.

You should be able to get heaps of information at your local library on this topic.

Answer 3

I've read the Illiad and the odessey. The ancient greeks were big on story telling for its own sake, so no. Despite the refrences to Poseidon, and Athena an Apollo, it wasnt a religous text. It was more the ancient world's version of a novel.

Answer 4

I have read both the Illiad and the Odyssey, and i believe they were not religious texts, but historical ones, used to relay the Greeks victory over Troy in an interesting way.

Answer 5

at the time it was composed i would say that its an epic on what their religious beliefs were, intertwined with ordinary men.
so i think that it was a belief system with a metaphoric way of viewing the world.

myths are based on religious views of a populace in a region of the world. so all myths are religions and all religions are a myth.
choose your beliefs wisely. ;-)

Answer 6

It is a teaching story in many ways, it is also a story about a great adventure.
It is like a bible story that is about an adventure, has heroes, teaches some moral lessons, but I think Homer just wanted to write a great story that helped teach people about life.