Why Homer Matters

By: Adam Nicolson

Narrated by: John Lee

Adam Nicolson sees the Iliad and the Odyssey as the foundation myths of Greek - and our - consciousness, collapsing the passage of 4,000 years and making the distant past of the Mediterranean world as immediate to us as the events of our own time. Homer's poems occupy, as Adam Nicolson writes, "a third space" in the way we relate to the past: not as memory, which lasts no more than three generations, nor as the objective accounts of history, but as epic, invented after memory but before history, poetry that aims "to bind the wounds that time inflicts".

The Homeric poems are among the oldest stories we have, drawing on deep roots in the Eurasian steppes beyond the Black Sea. These poems, which ask the eternal questions about the individual and the community, honor and service, love and war, tell us how we became who we are.

©2014 Adam Nicolson (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Nicolson's spirited exploration illuminates our own indelible past." ( Kirkus)

Why Homer? Adam answers the question full. This bookIs must read.

A superb work of imaginative, intellectual and beautifully written piece of history about Homer and The Illiad and the Odyssey. And it is about so much more than Homer and the stories. The author spreads tentacles out to reach the the cores of the many Bronze Age civilizations from which Adam Nicolson believes the Homeric myths derive. The connections he draws between
Them and his penetrating suggestions of meaning are nothing short of dazzling. Nicholson's book should be read And reread.

Profound Insight Into Homer Poetically Expressed!

This was the most engaging, enlightening, and currently relevant presentation of Homer’s epics I’ve ever heard. It brings Homer’s wisdom from the past to right now.

Read “Who Killed Homer” instead

This was not super helpful. It might have made me appreciate Homer less if I had trusted the author. If you must read this one, put it at the bottom of your reading list.

Amazing book

Easily the most interesting book on Homer I’ve ever read. The author speaks on the universal human themes in the stories and relates them to his own life. There is a portion where the author recounts being the victim of a sexual assault while visiting a foreign country. This section in particular is beautiful written and spoke to me on a personal level.

Flawed but worth the listen.

Skip the chapter about how the Greeks were just like inner city American gangsters (LOL)