Epic Cycle Beyond Homer

In ancient Greece, the Iliad and the Odyssey were only two parts of a larger eight-poem tradition known as the Epic Cycle, written by several different authors. While the rest of the cycle has survived only in fragments and summaries, Homer’s two works were copied, performed, and taught so widely that they remained intact. Their popularity helped erase the others, leaving Homer’s epics as the surviving core of what was once a much larger mythic series.

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