What Age Group Is The Iliad And The Odyssey Book For?

Reading both Iliad and Odyssey back to back is emotionally jarring, a contrast between a relentless, brutal war film tracking glory and suffering and a fantastical, sometimes mischievous, sometimes hopeful road trip around a chaotic, supernatural world and its man. As for length, there’s room for the emotional reset required between the end of Iliad’s funerals, culminating in Hector’s tragic funeral and our first experience of pity, and the beginning of Odyssey’s long journey home. As for the two epics being read together, the combined length is not just a matter of numbers of pages, it’s also a time buffer between two episodes of such vastly different moods and tones, a time to draw and dwell on the tragedy of the first of the two great epics before getting on to the second. Reading them quickly one after the other would be to do them a disservice, each demands a separate space, and the physical bulk of the two books on a shelf is just sufficient to enforce that needed space.

For the hard core fan, Rodney Merrill’s translation of the Odyssey is an English dactylic hexameter. What he’s tried to do is rephrase Homer in English to exactly the same rhythmic pattern as the original Greek. It’s an academic/poetic exercise that few people have attempted before, and, indeed, few people would wish to read for pleasure. It’s an amazingly challenging read at first but you soon get used to it. In total contrast to Rieu’s prose translation, the Rodney Merrill translation of ‘The Odyssey’ is written in English dactylic hexameter, attempting to re-create the unique rhythm and sound of the original Greek poems. This challenging, and at times, even strange read is essentially a specialist item – best left to translation geeks and classics students. However, it so effectively highlights the scope of translation of Homer’s works.

Despite the fact that there are two poems instead of one, one half was composed before the other. Scholars generally agree that The Iliad was composed before The Odyssey, but exact dates for ancient works are never known with certainty. Most scholars place the composition of The Iliad between 760 and 710 B.C., and The Odyssey between 720 and 670 B.C. The later poem assumes familiarity with the events of the Trojan War and with the main heroes who fought there. This would certainly make The Iliad the earlier work. Furthermore, The Odyssey ties up all the loose ends left by The Iliad, including the fate of several of its heroes. The poems were clearly intended to be read one after the other. Thus, even though both poems are very, very old, it is clear that The Iliad was composed first and The Odyssey thereafter. The Iliad establishes the world of the poems and The Odyssey explores the aftermath of The Iliad.

Read them in parallel! Find a good companion guide or podcast that is book-by-book. So you read a book of The Iliad and then listen to some discussion on it, and then you read a book of The Odyssey, and then you read a book of The Iliad, and so on. It’s very interesting to compare and contrast the two epics as you read them. Of course, reading the two epics in parallel will take twice as long as reading them one after the other, but the additional insight you get into how Homer treats topics like heroism, family, and the gods in each of the two epics is well worth the additional time. And the additional time is not comparing two books of similar length but rather experiencing two epics of greatly different length intertwined in such a way to produce a longer and far more rewarding reading experience.

Has anyone noticed the element of “nostos” or “homecoming” in films? Like in the “Odyssey” where all the characters search for home in different ways. Searchers is a western about an old veteran searching for his niece, but in the end he cannot return home. Finding Nemo is a story about a father searching for his son all over the ocean. It’s a nostos story for kids too. The ‘Iliad’ is about ‘kleos’ or glory. Films such as ‘Platoon’ and ‘Full Metal Jacket’ look at the ‘glory’ of war through the eyes of young men searching for it, hoping to find it or to even survive. So rather than watch all of the movies about the actual Trojan War, you can look at films that are thematic cousins to ‘The Iliad’. The setting of Troy is not really that important in the poems of Homer. The specific stories he wrote about expressed a deeper human experience than just a couple of specific wars.

The humor in these books is also another key element to their appropriateness. I mean, something that makes kids laugh and makes them happy is going to engage them even more so than something that is not as funny. In my opinion, the jokes and humorous comments about ancient Greek myths that Percy comments on are often pretty funny, although not all of them are. A 12-year-old would get a kick out of a comment about Ares, the Greek god of war, riding around on a motorcycle with leather and wearing wraparound shades, but a 7-year-old would probably not get the difference between ancient myths and modern culture. So while the content is appropriate for younger readers, the full enjoyment of the humor would be suited for readers between the ages of 10 and 14.

Mythic books can go for a wide range of ages, but tend to hit their stride with readers 12 and up. Young kids can get into the stories for their adventures, and then older kids can really get into the symbolism. Books like the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series by Rick Riordan are great for middle schoolers. He mixes humor and mythology to make a really fun read. But for adults, a book like The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec can offer a really darker, more complex take on the same core stories. The depth of the book can be adjusted for the age of the reader.

Honestly, who cares? A good book is a good book. I left this on the coffee table and my dad just finished reading it. He’s 65.

The story is perfect for family reading. If you have younger kids (10+), read it aloud to them. You can read the more complex sections together and then explain the politics behind them. You can also discuss the more mature themes in the book as you read them. My dad and I read the original Pern novels together when I was younger, and that is one of my favorite memories of time spent with him. “The Inheritance” is the perfect opportunity for “The Inheritance” to become one of your favorite memories with your children as well. The chapters are long enough to read nightly, and the world that Anne creates is rich enough to spark many conversations and thoughts about the story and its characters. So don’t shy away from reading “The Inheritance” because of the age recommendation of the book. Reading ‘The Inheritance’ with children of different ages can be a wonderful experience. They can enjoy the adventure, whilst parents can indulge in the richness of detail and complexity of politics and themes.

This book is great for 9-12 year olds because it treats them with respect. It doesn’t explain every single cultural reference in heavy exposition. Instead, it immerses the reader in the world of Omakayas and they learn along with her. Because kids in this age group hate to be talked down to, this book is perfect. The Ojibwe words are used naturally and for the most part their meaning is clear from context. The daily life of the main character and her family is depicted with such care that the reader could almost learn to do these things themselves. The book educates through narrative rather than through lectures. That’s good writing for anyone, but particularly for middle-grade readers in the process of developing their critical thinking skills. They aren’t reading about a culture; they’re reading about a year in the life of a relatable girl.