The "Iliad" is the story about the Trojan War caused by Helen, "the face that launched 1,000 ships." Helen, who was deemed to be the most beautiful woman in the world, was the goddess Aphrodite's gift to Paris of Troy following a contest in which Paris picked Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess. Since Helen was already married to Menelaus, a Greek king, Menelaus summoned the Greeks to declare war on Troy, and so began the Trojan War. As part of the this war in Troy, the Greeks constructed a wooden horse as a gift to Troy, filled it with warriors, and once the gift entered the gates of the city, sprang out and attacked. This was the fabled "Trojan Horse."
Ten years had passed since the end of the Trojan War, and most people assumed that Odysseus was dead. Suitors overran his palace, tried to woo his wife Penelope and discard the authority of Odysseus' young son Telemachus and his grandfather, Laertes. The goddess Athena remained an ally of Odysseus and his family and helped Odysseus battle the one-eyed Cylops, sail past the tempting goddesses -- Sirens -- and escape Circe, who turned men into pigs. Odysseus returned home, killed the suitors and reclaimed his throne.
A collection of 34 poems praising the Greek gods and goddesses, the "Homeric Hymns" were attributed to Homer by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides and were probably composed around 700 B.C. These poems have the same meter and Homeric dialect as the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" and were composed to be sung and performed by the bards of the time. The collection includes stories about the goddesses Demeter, Aphrodite and Persephone among others and includes hymns about the birth of Apollo and the wrath of Zeus.
Homeric poetry also refers to a style that uses a specific meter, rhythm and repeated epithet that is characteristic of oral poetry -- poetry that was created to be recited or sung in performances. Scholars have studied the poetry of oral poets in preliterate societies to determine the way these poems were remembered and composed. They examined features of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" to determine that Homeric poetry was composed to be performed in a particular way. Performing Homeric poetry was not just an afterthought, according to Albert B. Lord in his 2000 book, "The Singer of Tales;" it was the reason this poetry existed -- to be passed down from generation to generation, in word and song.