Troy Saga Reading Order | Comparing the Iliad and Odyssey Originals of the Trojan War
If you're torn over whether to read the Iliad or the Odyssey first, the recommended order is to read the Iliad first and then move on to the Odyssey. One work is the story of the war, and the other is the story of the homecoming after the war ends, so if you arrange them by the scope of events, the war comes first and the homecoming follows—a natural flow.
That said, this order is simply a practical choice made for ease of reading along the scope of events. It is neither a chronological order showing which of the two works was composed first, nor the only fixed canonical order. Keeping this distinction in mind will make everything below much clearer.
The Scope of Events Each Work Covers
| Work | Period Covered | Beginning of Book 1 | End of the Final Book |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iliad | A period of the Trojan War | Achilles' rage and his quarrel with Agamemnon | Hector's return and funeral rites |
| Odyssey | The homecoming after the war ends | The gods discuss the absent Odysseus and the situation on Ithaca | A story completed by Odysseus's return |
The Iliad is not a work that contains the entire Trojan War in full. Book 1 opens with Achilles' rage and his falling-out with Agamemnon, and Book 24 ends with the return of Hector's remains and his funeral rites.
So the detailed process of Troy actually falling does not fall within the narrative scope of Iliad Books 1–24. If you begin knowing that this is an epic focused on a single stretch of the war, you'll naturally understand why the fall itself never appears in the text.
The Odyssey is the work on the opposite side. It begins in Book 1 with the gods discussing the situation without Odysseus and the events unfolding on Ithaca. Not the war itself, but the homecoming of Odysseus, who cannot return to his homeland after the war ends, is the center of this work.
Therefore, by the scope of events, the Iliad—set during the war—comes first, and the Odyssey—set at the homecoming—comes after. This is the basis for recommending the Iliad-first, Odyssey-second order.
Does the Trojan Horse Appear in the Iliad?
The Trojan Horse, the symbol of Troy's fall, does not appear directly in the text of the Iliad. Instead, it is treated in retrospective form within the Odyssey.
In Book 4 of the Odyssey, the horse is mentioned within Menelaus's story, and in Book 8, the bard Demodocus's song contains the horse and the Greeks' stratagem. In other words, you cannot say outright that the horse lies outside both works, but it is clear that it is not a scene that unfolds directly in the text of the Iliad.
Reading the Iliad, you're bound to wait for the scene where Troy falls, but that detailed process must be understood separately from the Iliad's book-by-book narrative. If you're curious about the full context of the horse and the fall tradition, it's worth checking out the Trojan Horse story separately.
Book Structure and the Actual Reading Order
The Iliad and the Odyssey are each epics made up of 24 books and are treated as separate works. Whether you read them as a set or separately, simply follow each work from Book 1 through Book 24 in order.
- Step 1 — The Iliad : Read first the wartime story that begins with Achilles' rage and his quarrel with Agamemnon and ends with Hector's funeral rites.
- Step 2 — The Odyssey : Continue with the homecoming of Odysseus, who could not return home after the war, completing the two stories.
The reason this order feels natural is the scope of events discussed earlier. If you encounter the wartime story first and then move on to the homecoming, you can follow the flow without any background knowledge. Conversely, starting with the Odyssey poses no problem for understanding the story itself, but you'll learn only later what the characters went through at Troy.
To emphasize again, this order is merely a practical choice that lets you read the war first and the homecoming later. Questions of chronology—such as when the two works were composed or which came first—remain open topics without a settled conclusion.
If You Want to Go Deeper into Each Work
If you become curious about the structure and key events of the Iliad itself, it's a good follow-up to read the Iliad original guide. If you'd like to survey the overall flow of the Odyssey in order, the Odyssey original guide is a good fit.
If you want to broadly compare reading orders that go beyond these two works and include other classical epics, the classical epic reading order is also worth consulting. The relationship between the horse and the fall of Troy is covered separately in the Trojan Horse story introduced earlier.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Does Troy fall by the end of the Iliad?
A. No. The Iliad ends with Hector's return and funeral rites, and the detailed process of the fall is not included within the book range of this work. The fall and the horse can be partially confirmed in Menelaus's recollection in Book 4 of the Odyssey and in Demodocus's song in Book 8.
Q. Is it okay to start with the Odyssey?
A. Comprehension itself is possible. However, since the relationships in which the Odyssey's characters became entangled in the Trojan War are rooted in the wartime story of the Iliad, reading the war first makes the homecoming half all the more rewarding.
In Summary
The Iliad is the story of the war, opening with Achilles' rage and closing with Hector's funeral; the Odyssey is the story dealing with Odysseus's homecoming after the war. By the scope of events, reading the Iliad first and then the Odyssey is the most natural practical order.
The horse does not appear directly in the text of the Iliad but is contained within the Odyssey's recollections. Just remember as well that the composition dates of the two works and any single canonical order remain open topics without a settled conclusion.