Iliad vs Odyssey Difference | Plot and Reading Order Comparison of the Originals

To get straight to the conclusion, the Iliad and the Odyssey are separate epics even though they are named together under Homer. The Iliad unfolds around the wrath of Achilles in the midst of the Trojan War, while the Odyssey deals with the homecoming of Odysseus as he returns to his homeland of Ithaca after the war ends. So the question "Which should I read first?" is less a problem with the works themselves and closer to a practical choice of which axis the reader decides to start from.

Where does each work begin and end?

Book 1 of the Iliad presents Achilles's wrath and his conflict with Agamemnon as its very first scene. Rather than building up the entire Trojan War like a chronicle, it is structured to focus intensively on one period of the war centered on this single wrath. So precisely grasping the scope of the Iliad is the first step in distinguishing the two works.

The end of the Iliad is not the flames of the city's fall either. Book 24 closes with Hector's body being returned to Troy and his funeral rites performed. This means it is hard to accept that the entire later tradition following the fall of Troy is contained within the Iliad.

The starting point of the Odyssey lies at the opposite end. When Book 1 opens, Odysseus is already absent from home, and in Ithaca we first see a situation where suitors eyeing his empty place surround the palace. Because it is a story set after the war, both the cause and the effect of the work depart from "those who have not returned from the war."

Which of the two works does the Trojan Horse belong to?

The Horse is commonly remembered as the concluding event of the Iliad, but strictly speaking it cannot be divided that way. Because the Trojan Horse is mentioned again in flashback in Books 4 and 8 of the Odyssey, it is a stretch to assert that the Horse belongs to only one of the two works.

That said, this flashback form itself shows the relationship between the two works well. While the Iliad deals with the wrath during the war and the Odyssey deals with the homecoming after the war, each on its own axis, events surrounding the war, like the Horse, appear as flashbacks that carry over from one to the other. Rather than mixing the two narratives into one continuous grand epic, following each work's book structure separately is the way to read this structure accurately.

Why do the sea adventures of the Odyssey appear in the middle?

The famous episodes of the Odyssey are not placed at the front in the order the events occurred. The section spanning Books 9 through 12 consists of a narrative in which Odysseus, in the palace of the Phaeacians, recounts his past voyages in flashback to those who had received him as a guest.

Knowing this structure, you can understand why the story begins in the present situation in the middle of the sea and then traces back into the past. Conversely, if a particular episode interests you, you can also go directly to the original text of the relevant book using the Books 9 through 12 section as your reference point. This is because the retrospective narrative continues across several books, with each book divided as a separate text.

If you want to skim the overall progression of the Odyssey first, you can check the flow, including the retrospective section, in the Odyssey plot summary.

Reading order of the originals: should you start with the Iliad?

As a practical reading order, reading the Iliad first and the Odyssey later is a convenient arrangement. If you read the war narrative first, the background of the war events that appear as flashbacks in the Odyssey falls naturally into place. Since it is an order of learning the cause, the war, first and then reading the result, the homecoming, the causality of events connects naturally.

However, one distinction is worth keeping in mind. This order is merely a convenient arrangement for the reader's understanding, and is separate from the question of chronology, that is, in what order the two works came into being. It is best not to mix up "reading order" and "order of composition."

If you are curious about the overall flow of the war itself, that is, how the period covered by the Iliad connects to the events before and after it, the Trojan War event order pairs well with this article. When you want to go deeper into the narrative on Achilles's side, continue on to the Iliad plot and key points summary.

FAQ

Q. If I read the Iliad to the end, does it include the fall of Troy?
A. No, it does not. The Iliad ends with the return of Hector's body and the funeral rites, and the entire fall tradition lies outside the scope this work covers. As for events on the fall side, like the Horse, what is directly confirmed in the original text extends only to the points where they are mentioned in flashback in Books 4 and 8 of the Odyssey.

Q. Can I read only the flashback section of the Odyssey?
A. Odysseus's voyage flashback runs from Book 9 through Book 12, so if you find and read that section, you can closely follow the flow of the sea adventures. However, the context of the whole narrative is completed only when connected to the books before and after the flashback, so it is better to follow the book order as is on a first reading.

In summary

The Iliad and the Odyssey are separate epics, the former centered on the wrath of Achilles during the Trojan War and the latter on the homecoming of Odysseus after the war, and both works consist of 24 books. For reading order, reading the Iliad, the war, first and the Odyssey, the homecoming, later is practical, but this is merely a matter of convenience, distinct from the question of when the works were composed. If you read the two narratives separately, following each work's book structure without mixing them, the cause of the war and the result of the homecoming read far more clearly within each work's own structure.