Should you read the Iliad or Odyssey first? A guide to choosing where to start

If you want to read Homer but aren’t sure where to begin, you might assume there’s an obvious answer. The Iliad comes first. Then the Odyssey.

Right?

Well... maybe.

The short answer: read the Iliad first if you want chronological context, but read the Odyssey first if you want the more immediately accessible adventure.

Chronologically, yes, the events of the Iliad happen before those of the Odyssey. And if your goal is to read the Homeric epics in their traditional order, starting there makes perfect sense.

But that doesn’t mean it is the best place for you to start.

One thing I’ve learned from talking with readers about different translations of Homer is that there’s rarely one universally “best” choice. The better question is often: what do you want from the experience?

So, let’s figure out which epic sounds more like the book you want to read right now.

Read the Odyssey first if you want an adventure

If the phrase “ancient Greek epic” brings to mind monsters, shipwrecks, gods, witches, island hopping, and a hero desperately trying to get home, you’re picturing the Odyssey.

Odysseus encounters the Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, the dead in the Underworld, and a long series of people who either help him get home or actively try to stop him from ever setting foot on Ithaca again.

There are disguises. Narrow escapes. Storytelling within storytelling. A household full of unwanted suitors. A very patient wife. A son trying to figure out who he is.

For many modern readers, the Odyssey simply has an easier premise to grab onto:

A man has been away from home for twenty years. Now he’s trying to get back.

If you’re new to ancient literature and want the Homeric epic most likely to feel immediately familiar as a story, I would start here.

(If you’re trying to decide between translations, you can read my companion article Which Translation of Homer's Odyssey Should I Read?)

Read the Iliad first if you want tragedy and emotional intensity

The Iliad is a war poem, but it’s not really a story about the Trojan War at its heart.

The poem begins in the tenth and final year of the war, and it covers only a short period near its end. You won’t get the Judgment of Paris, the Trojan Horse, or even the fall of Troy.

What you get is Achilles.

Specifically, you get an angry Achilles.

The Iliad begins with a conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon, and from that conflict comes a devastating chain of consequences involving pride, honor, grief, friendship, mortality, and the terrible human cost of war.

If you prefer books in which the emotional and psychological stakes matter more than the plot mechanics, the Iliad may actually be the better place to begin.

This is not primarily a story about whether the Greeks will defeat the Trojans. It’s a story about what rage does to a person and what grief does after the rage has died down.

(If you’re trying to decide between translations, you can read my companion article Which Translation of Homer's Iliad Should I Read?)

Read the Odyssey first if you want a strong central plot

The Odyssey has plenty of complications, but its central objective is simple: Odysseus wants to go home. Penelope wants to survive until he does. Telemachus wants to discover what happened to his father and what kind of man he himself is going to become.

That gives the poem a narrative momentum that many first-time readers find accessible.

The Iliad, by comparison, can initially feel harder to grasp. Its action moves between battles, speeches, divine interventions, arguments, deaths, funerals, and long stretches in which the emotional meaning of what’s happening matters more than getting everybody to the next plot point.

If you’re someone who likes to know where a story is going, start with the Odyssey.

Read the Iliad first if you want to more context for the Odyssey

This is probably the strongest argument for reading the Iliad first. The world of the Odyssey is a world that lives in the aftermath of Troy and everyone has lost something. And memories loom of the men who didn’t come home: Achilles. Patroclus. Ajax.

Reading the Iliad first means that these names are no longer just references to dead heroes. You know them. In some cases, you’ve watched them die. That gives the Odyssey an additional layer of melancholy that’s easy to miss otherwise.

So, if you want the richest sense of continuity between the poems, start with the Iliad.

 

Read the Odyssey first if you love Greek mythology

This may sound strange, because obviously both poems are foundational works of Greek mythology. But the Odyssey contains more of the fantasy that many people associate with the famous myths.

There are fantastical creatures and magical women, divine grudges and journeys into strange worlds.

The Iliad has gods everywhere—interfering in battles, arguing among themselves, occasionally getting injured—but the human world is surprisingly grounded.

If mythology for you means monsters and marvels, the Odyssey is probably the better entrance.

If mythology means gods interacting messily with equally messy human beings, however, the Iliad is magnificent.

Read the Iliad first if you like morally complicated characters

One warning about reading Homer: if you want morally simple heroes, you’ve come to the wrong place.

And the Iliad is especially good at complicating its characters. Achilles can be magnificent and monstrous. Agamemnon can be powerful, ridiculous, cruel, and occasionally capable of recognizing his own mistakes. Helen despises herself. Priam is a king, a father, and eventually simply an old man grieving for his son.

Even the gods are petty, affectionate, vindictive, funny, terrifying, and sometimes all of those within a short span of time.

If you like books that leave you arguing with yourself about their characters long after you finish them, choose the Iliad first.

Read the Odyssey first if you like modern storytelling techniques

Neither Homeric epic is a novel, of course. Both come from an oral poetic tradition vastly different from the way most of us encounter stories today.

But of the two, the Odyssey can feel more familiar to modern readers. It has mysteries. Reunions. Reveals. Flashbacks. Parallel storylines. Domestic tension. A long-delayed confrontation.

Odysseus himself doesn’t even appear immediately. The poem begins with Telemachus and a crisis in Ithaca before gradually bringing its wandering hero into the story. Then Odysseus narrates much of his own adventure retrospectively, meaning some of the most famous episodes in Western literature are essentially one enormous story told at dinner.

If experimental chronology and nested storytelling don’t bother you, the Odyssey can feel pretty modern.

Read the Iliad first if you’re interested in the Trojan War

With one important caveat: the poem covers only a tiny part of the Trojan War. The war has already been going on for nine years when the poem begins, and Troy is still standing when the poem ends.

But the Iliad gives you the world of the war in extraordinary detail: the alliances, rivalries, warriors, gods, and values that drive these men to seek glory even when they know that glory may kill them.

If you later want to explore the larger Trojan War tradition—Iphigenia, the sacrifice at Aulis, the Judgment of Paris, the Amazons, the death of Achilles, the Trojan Horse, the sack of Troy—the Iliad gives you an essential foundation. Just don’t expect it to give you the whole story.

Greek mythology never makes things that convenient.

What if you’ve already read the Odyssey?

Then read the Iliad.

Seriously.

You haven’t “done Homer” just because you’ve read one of them, and the two poems are far more different than people sometimes expect.

In fact, reading the Iliad after the Odyssey can be fascinating because you’re essentially moving backward.

You’ve already seen the survivors. Now you meet the dead.

Can you read Homer without knowing Greek mythology?

Yes, and this is the perfect place to start. Your mind is a clean slate, ready to receive beautiful poetry and begin painting vivid images from the lines of a three-thousand-year-old story.

Just sit with that a moment. The stories behind these poems reach back more than three thousand years.

And, no, you don't need to memorize a family tree of Greek gods, study the entire Trojan War tradition, or take a crash course in Bronze Age archaeology before opening Homer.

But one of the great pleasures of reading these poems is gradually recognizing how many later stories, images, sayings, and characters lead back to them.

Pick a readable translation. Keep a list of characters handy if you need one. Accept that you will forget who a few heroes are, and that you’ll only be able to pronounce about three names on your first try.

So, should you read the Iliad or Odyssey first?

Unofficial Guide

Start with the Odyssey if you want:	Start with the Iliad if you want:
Adventure	Tragedy
Monsters and magic	Psychologically complicated characters
Travel	War and its concequences
A strong central plot	Grief, rage, honor, and mortality
Family and homecoming	Deeper context for the Odyssey
Something that feels a little closer to a modern novel	The world of the Trojan War
A gentler introduction to Homer	A poem that may haunt you more than entertain you

And if both lists sound good? Read the Iliad first and the Odyssey second. Because there’s something remarkable about leaving the battlefield of Troy and then discovering what happened to the people who survived it.

The Iliad asks what it means to know you’re going to die.

The Odyssey asks what happens when you survive.

And together, they make one of the greatest conversations in literature.

If you’re interested in Greek myth retellings that explore the human cost behind the legends, you may enjoy The Death and Life of Iphigenia or my free short story, Aerope.