On Homer's "The Iliad"

The Iliad is among the oldest surviving works of literature, but for a long time The Iliad wasn’t written down. It’s a story that has influenced the world for over three thousand years, but for the ancient Greeks, it was history. One man, Homer, is credited with writing The Iliad, but it’s more likely that The Iliad was composed by many ancient storytellers—a lot of whom were women. Gregory Nagy is the Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard University. His books include Homer: The Preclassic and The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Om Podcasten

There’s more to a book than what’s written on its pages: a book can change the world. In each episode of Writ Large, host Zachary Davis talks with one of the world’s leading scholars about one book that shaped the world we live in—whether you’ve heard of it or not. These conversations go beyond the plot summaries to unpack each book’s context and creation, and reveal its lasting influence on the ideas of today. Learn more at writlarge.fm