c. 800 BCE: Homer: Homer composed his poems – the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Greeks in general regard Homer's two epics as the highest cultural achievement of their people, the defining moment in Greek culture which set the basic Greek character in stone. These stories contain the principles and lesson which are taught to the children in our country from childhood. The stories in the epics teach us why we should have those basic manners in ourselves in very interesting ways. Originally the mythical stories were told orally and later performed by playwrights at the cities’ festivals, until the Ancient Greeks re-discovered the tool of the written word and Homer’s epics quickly became physical texts. The Iliad, the Odyssey, Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, and the Homeric Hymns formed the foundation for all of ancient Greek literature and they were the basis for a large swathe of ancient Greek culture.Of these poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey were the most important and influential. myth This is a marble sculpture of Polyphemus—a cyclops, or one-eyed monster— who appears in another of Homer’s epics, the Odyssey. Why were epics and fables so important to the ancient Greeks? 776 BCE: First Olympic Games: First recorded Olympic games. Iliad are warriors: the fierce Greek Achilles (uh•KIHL•eez) and the courageous The truth is, Greek myths are not only rooted in reality but have helped shape modern thinking in many important ways. Epic - Epic - The Greek epic: Especially in its originative stage, the Greek epic may have been strongly influenced by these Asian traditions. The Iliad is an epic poem set in the Trojan War while the Odyssey tells the story of the adventures of Odysseus on his return from the Trojan war. The poet Homer composed them during the 700 B.C. Storytelling was a prevalent tradition throughout Ancient Greece. These stories are told to them so that they can learn why it is important to become a good human being. The Greek world in the late Bronze Age was related to the Middle East by so many close ties that it formed an integral part of the Levant. The Greek alphabet was developed from the Phoenician alphabet. Although epic poetry began well before the Ancient Greek civilization came about, it was an important part of the Greek culture starting in around the 6th century B.C. I certainly agree with readerofbooks that epic stories served an important purpose in explaining the past. Why were the epics of importance to the Greeks of the Dorian period? Specifically, epic poetry, which uses verses to tell a long story about a hero. 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