Topic summary
The Iliad
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Iliad.
Influence on arts and culture
The Iliad was a popular work in classical Greece and remained so throughout the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods. It is generally believed by most scholars to have "existed in some form by the mid-seventh century B.C.", although no explicit references to the Iliad from 650 to 550 BC survive and most references were in the form of literary allusions. The Iliad grew in popularity in the fifth century BC, although there is little evidence to suggest that it and the Odyssey had achieved at this time a status as canonical "Homeric" texts. By 14–235 AD, "Homer's influence permeate[d] every corner of the Roman empire", and the Iliad was "personified in sculptural form".