What You Need to Know Before You Begin 

You do not need to know all of Greek mythology before reading Homer. 

In fact, trying to learn every god, hero, monster, family connection, and myth before opening The Iliad or The Odyssey is likely to make the poems seem harder than they are. 

You need a much smaller amount of background. 

The most important things to understand are why the Trojan War began, who the major Greek and Trojan figures are, why the gods take sides, and where The Iliad and The Odyssey fit within the larger story. 

Once you know that much, you can learn the rest as you read.  

 
Both The Iliad and The Odyssey are connected with the Trojan War.

According to Greek tradition, the war was fought between an alliance of Greek kingdoms and the city of Troy, located across the Aegean Sea in what is now Turkey.

The Greeks sometimes call themselves Achaeans, Argives, or Danaans in Homer. These names all refer broadly to the Greek forces.

The Trojans are the people of Troy.

The war is traditionally said to have lasted ten years.

The Iliad takes place during the final year of that war.

The Odyssey begins after the war has ended.
 
 

 
The mythological chain of events leading to the war begins with a dispute among three goddesses:
 
Hera, queen of the gods
Athena, goddess of wisdom and warfare
Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty

A golden apple marked for “the fairest” causes the goddesses to argue over which of them deserves it.

The Trojan prince Paris is chosen to decide.

Each goddess offers him a reward.

Hera offers power.

Athena offers wisdom and military success.

Aphrodite promises him the most beautiful woman in the world.

Paris chooses Aphrodite.

That woman is Helen.
 
There is one enormous problem.
 
Helen is already married.
 
 

 
Helen is the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta.

Paris travels to Sparta and returns to Troy with Helen.

Ancient versions of the story disagree about exactly how this happens. Some emphasize abduction; others give Helen greater responsibility for leaving.

For reading Homer, the essential point is simple:

Helen is now in Troy with Paris, and Menelaus wants her back.

Menelaus calls upon other Greek rulers to help him.

His most powerful ally is his brother Agamemnon.
 
 

 
The two brothers are among the most important Greek leaders connected with Troy.
 
Agamemnon is king of Mycenae and commander of the Greek expedition.

Menelaus is king of Sparta and Helen’s husband.

Agamemnon outranks the other Greek kings in the army, but that does not mean everyone accepts his judgment.

This becomes especially important when he quarrels with Achilles at the beginning of The Iliad.
 
 

 
Achilles is the greatest warrior fighting for the Greeks.

He is the son of the mortal Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis.

Achilles knows that his life may follow one of two paths.

He can leave Troy, return home, and live a longer life without achieving the greatest heroic fame.

Or he can remain at Troy, die young, and become famous for generations.

This tension between life and glory is central to his character.

At the beginning of The Iliad, Achilles and Agamemnon have a bitter argument.
 
Achilles stops fighting.
 
The consequences of that decision drive much of the poem.
 
 

 
Patroclus is Achilles’ closest companion.

He becomes increasingly important as the Greek army suffers during Achilles’ absence.

You do not need to know much more before beginning.

Just remember that Achilles’ relationship with Patroclus is one of the emotional centers of The Iliad.
 
 

 
Hector is Troy’s greatest warrior.

He is the son of Priam, king of Troy, and Hecuba, its queen.

He is married to Andromache, and they have a young son.
 
Hector is defending his own city.
 
That makes his position very different from that of the Greeks who have sailed across the sea to attack it.
 
Although Hector is the enemy of the Greek army, Homer does not portray him as a villain.
 
He is one of the poem’s most sympathetic characters.
 
 

 
Paris is Hector’s brother.
 
He is the Trojan prince whose relationship with Helen helped cause the war.
 
Hector and Paris are very different.
 
Hector is associated with responsibility, duty, and defense of Troy.
 
Paris is more strongly associated with beauty, desire, and the choices that brought disaster upon his city.
 
Their contrast is worth watching.
 
 

 
Priam is the elderly king of Troy and father of Hector and Paris.

He has many children.

Priam becomes especially important near the end of The Iliad.
 
Remember him not simply as the king of the enemy city, but as a father whose family is being destroyed by the war.
 
 

 
Odysseus is king of the island of Ithaca.

He fights for the Greeks at Troy and is known especially for intelligence, persuasion, planning, and deception.

The famous wooden horse used in the traditional story of Troy is associated with Odysseus’ cunning.

But the Trojan Horse does not appear in The Iliad.

That surprises many first-time readers.

The Iliad ends before Troy falls.

The Odyssey tells what happens to Odysseus as he tries to return home after the war.
 
 

 
While Odysseus is away, his wife Penelope remains in Ithaca.

Their son Telemachus was an infant when Odysseus left for Troy.

By the beginning of The Odyssey, Odysseus has been away for almost twenty years.

Telemachus has grown up without his father.

Penelope does not know with certainty whether her husband is alive or dead.

A large group of men—the suitors—has moved into Odysseus’ household and is pressuring Penelope to choose one of them as a new husband.

This is the situation The Odyssey begins with.
 
 

 
You probably already know the basic story.
 
The Greeks eventually pretend to abandon the war, leaving behind an enormous wooden horse.
 
Trojan soldiers bring the horse inside the city.
 
Greek warriors hidden inside emerge at night.
 
The Greeks return, Troy is captured, and the city is destroyed.
 
This famous episode belongs to the larger tradition surrounding the Trojan War.
 
It is not narrated in The Iliad.

Students sometimes reach the end of The Iliad and wonder where the horse went.
 
Nothing is missing.
 
Homer simply ends his poem earlier.
 
 

 
The Iliad is not the story of the Trojan War from beginning to end.
 
It covers only a short period during the tenth year of the conflict.
 
The poem begins with the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon.
 
It ends with the funeral of Hector.
 
Troy has not yet fallen.
 
Achilles is still alive.
 
The Trojan Horse has not yet been built.
 
Helen has not yet returned to Sparta.
 
Homer chooses one part of a much larger story and concentrates intensely on it.
 
That narrow focus allows the poem to explore anger, honor, friendship, grief, mortality, leadership, and the cost of war.
 
 

 
After the events of The Iliad, the larger mythological tradition continues.

Achilles eventually dies.

The Greeks eventually use the Trojan Horse to enter Troy.

The city falls.

The surviving Greek leaders begin their journeys home.

Those journeys are called homecomings, or nostoi.

Some go well.

Some end disastrously.

Odysseus’ journey becomes the subject of The Odyssey.
 
 

 
You do not need to memorize the entire Greek pantheon.
 
Start with these.
 
Zeus

Zeus is king of the Olympian gods.

He has enormous authority, but Greek mythology does not always portray him as controlling every event without limits.

In Homer, even Zeus must take fate and competing divine interests into account.


Hera

Hera is the wife of Zeus and queen of the gods.

She strongly supports the Greeks during the Trojan War.

Her hostility toward Troy is connected with Paris choosing Aphrodite rather than Hera in the judgment of Paris.


Athena

Athena is the goddess of wisdom, strategy, and warfare.

She supports the Greeks in The Iliad.

In The Odyssey, she becomes Odysseus’ most important divine ally and also guides Telemachus.

Athena and Odysseus share several qualities: intelligence, planning, disguise, and strategic thinking.


Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty.

She promised Helen to Paris and therefore supports Paris and the Trojans.

She appears directly in The Iliad.


Apollo

Apollo is associated with prophecy, music, healing, disease, and archery.

He supports the Trojans.

The Iliad begins after Agamemnon insults a priest of Apollo and Apollo sends a plague upon the Greek army.


Poseidon

Poseidon is god of the sea.

He generally favors the Greeks during The Iliad.

But he becomes Odysseus’ major divine enemy in The Odyssey after Odysseus blinds Poseidon’s son, the Cyclops Polyphemus.


Hermes

Hermes is the messenger of the gods.

He appears at important moments in The Odyssey, including Odysseus’ encounter with Circe and the gods’ command that Calypso release him.


Thetis
 
Thetis is a sea goddess and the mother of Achilles.
 
Her relationship with her mortal son is important because she knows that she cannot protect him from mortality forever.
 
 

 
The Greek gods do not behave like perfect moral beings.
 
They quarrel.
 
They deceive.
 
They take sides.
 
They become jealous.
 
They help favorite mortals and oppose others.
 
They can behave in ways that seem petty, unfair, or surprisingly human.
 
Do not assume that because a god does something, Homer expects you to think it is morally right.
 
Instead ask:
 
What does the god want?

Whom does the god support?

How does divine intervention affect a human decision?
 
 

 
You will also encounter the idea of fate.
 
Certain events seem destined to happen.
 
Troy is destined to fall.
 
Achilles knows that remaining at Troy will lead toward his death.
 
Odysseus is destined eventually to return home.
 
But characters still make meaningful choices.
 
Homer does not give us a simple world in which either fate controls everything or human beings control everything.
 
Both exist together.
 
That tension is important.
 
 

 
The warriors of The Iliad live in a culture where honor and reputation matter enormously.
 
A warrior wants others to recognize his courage and accomplishments.
 
Prizes taken in war are not merely possessions. They can represent public status.
 
That is one reason Agamemnon’s seizure of Briseis matters so much to Achilles.
 
To a modern reader, the quarrel may initially appear excessive.
 
Within Achilles’ culture, he believes he has been publicly dishonored.
 
Understanding that does not require agreeing with his response.
 
 

 
Hospitality is especially important in The Odyssey.

The Greek concept often called xenia describes obligations between hosts and guests.

A stranger should normally be offered food, shelter, protection, and respectful treatment.

Guests also have responsibilities toward hosts.

Throughout The Odyssey, treatment of strangers becomes a test of character.
 
Good hosts include people such as the Phaeacians and Eumaeus.
 
Polyphemus and the suitors represent extreme violations of hospitality.
 
You do not need to memorize the Greek word.
 
You do need to notice the pattern.
 
 

 
Characters frequently pray, sacrifice animals, pour offerings, or ask gods for assistance.
 
Religion is woven into ordinary life in Homer.
 
People do not separate the divine world neatly from politics, warfare, travel, family, or everyday decisions.
 
When you encounter a sacrifice or prayer, you usually do not need to stop and study the ritual in detail.
 
Simply recognize that characters understand themselves as living in a world where divine powers are continually present.
 
 

 
Greek mythology contains complicated family histories.
 
You do not need to learn them all.
 
But several relationships matter immediately:
 
Achilles — son of Peleus and Thetis

Hector and Paris — sons of Priam and Hecuba

Agamemnon and Menelaus — brothers

Helen and Menelaus — husband and wife

Odysseus and Penelope — husband and wife

Odysseus and Telemachus — father and son
 
Keep those straight and you already have much of what you need.
 
 

 
One family background is useful because it connects the two epics.
 
Agamemnon and Menelaus belong to the troubled House of Atreus.

Their family history contains generations of violence, betrayal, and revenge.

You do not need the entire genealogy before reading Homer.

The important point is that Agamemnon’s own homecoming after Troy ends disastrously.

When Odysseus later hears about Agamemnon in The Odyssey, that story becomes a warning.
 
One Greek king returned from Troy and was murdered in his own household.
 
Odysseus is trying to return to a household whose condition he does not yet know.
 
That parallel matters.
 
 

 
Do not read The Iliad as though the Greeks are simply the heroes and the Trojans are villains.
 
Homer does not make the division that simple.
 
Achilles can behave terribly.
 
Agamemnon can be a poor leader.
 
Hector can be admirable.
 
Priam can be deeply sympathetic.
 
Andromache’s suffering matters.
 
The poem repeatedly asks readers to care about people on both sides.
 
That is one of the most important things to know before reading it.
 
 

 
As you read, you will encounter names you do not recognize.
 
That is normal.
 
You may meet a god whose role you have forgotten.
 
Look it up.
 
You may see a reference to an older myth.
 
A note or glossary may explain it.
 
You may encounter a warrior who appears for only a few lines.
 
You probably do not need to remember him.
 
A useful rule is:
 
If the poem keeps bringing someone back, learn the name.
 
If not, keep reading.
 
 

 
If you remember nothing else, remember this:
 
Paris, a prince of Troy, leaves Sparta with Helen, the wife of Menelaus.
 
Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon lead a Greek coalition to Troy.
 
The war lasts ten years.
 
Achilles is the greatest Greek warrior.
 
Hector is the greatest Trojan warrior.
 
The Iliad takes place during the final year of the war and centers on Achilles’ anger.
 
The poem ends before Troy falls.
 
The Greeks later destroy Troy through the Trojan Horse.
 
Odysseus survives the war and attempts to sail home to Ithaca.
 
His return takes years.
 
Penelope and Telemachus are waiting there.
 
Athena helps Odysseus.
 
Poseidon makes his journey much harder.
 
That is enough background to begin Homer.
 
Everything else can be learned along the way.
 
 

 
Mythology should help you enter Homer, not stand between you and the poems.
 
You do not need to become an expert on Greek religion before meeting Achilles.
 
You do not need to memorize a family tree before following Odysseus.
 
Learn the basic situation.
 
Keep a character guide nearby.
 
Look something up when you need it.
 
Then read.
 
The world will become more familiar much faster than it seems at first.