Why were The Iliad and the Odyssey important to the Greeks?

Answer 1

It's important to the Greek's because it was a great achievement to them. It was a great defining moment for them. It was also the focal point for Greek values.

C. The values and customs of the greeks who lived when the epics were composed.

Answer 2

The Iliad was essentially an expression of collective Hellenic history. During the time it was composed, the western coast of modern-day Turkey and its surrounding islands was called Ionia at the time, in the 8th century BC. The Ionians, migrants from the mainland and other, more western islands such as Crete, were by far the wealthiest Greeks of the age. However, culturally, they still considered their history fundamentally Greek, and so, likely to cement that, the Iliad was commissioned, and written, purportedly, by Homer.

It will often be said that Homer was in fact not a real person, but the name given to a series of bards on Chios, but the work is so thoroughly consistent not only in word choice but in characterization that the bards in question would need to be a collection of - by far - most clever and thorough literary masterminds the world will ever see, an impossibly improbable situation; the more effective explanation, then, is that Homer was a single person who was arguably the world's best writer. Regardless, we shall call this person Homer.

Homer's Iliad is traditionally thought to reflect ideals to be imitated in contemporary Greece: honor, primarily. However, though it reflects values to be embraced, there is a surprising amount of humanity and, if one should wish to read it as such, social commentary. A large amount of scholarship states that Fate was something that even Zeus could not go against - as evidenced in Book 16, that's not entirely true. Zeus had the chance to save his mortal son, Sarpedon, being killed by Patroclus, a Greek. However, the reason that he does not is not because he is physically unable to, but because none of the other gods or goddesses were allowed to save their own children, weeping though they were. Zeus's position, though he is far and away the most powerful of the gods, is that doing so would violate a sort of Social Contract among the gods, so there are absolutely some interesting themes about power. This, among numerous other possible themes, makes the Iliad an extraordinarily deep work. For epic, the characters - even the gods - are shockingly human.

The Odyssey is an entirely different question, and one I do not feel qualified to fully address. It tells the tales of Odysseus's wandering, and has obvious themes of the importance of fidelity and the marvels of ingenuity. However, beyond that, another will need to pick up.

Answer 3

Because the Iliad and the Odyssey were sacred texts, they are exactly preserved as they were in the Bronze Age.