These students’ assumption is borne out insofar as the Homeric poems have taken precedence etymologically, as well as experientially. For most readers schooled in the Western tradition, for instance, the Iliad and Odyssey epitomize epic poetry, as they are the first epics that students of this tradition encounter (though perhaps in abridged form). In response, some people, even without examining any evidence, may sense that these poems are inextricable from the idea of epic. Nagy’s characterization of Achilles’ and Odysseus’ quintessential actions as “epic” raises the question of when the Iliad and Odyssey began to be regarded as epics rather than as kléa andrō̂n.
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