The Odyssey (In Our Time)
700 BCE · Resource
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Odyssey by Homer, often claimed as the great founding work of Western Literature. It's an epic that has entertained its audience for nearly three thousand years: It has shipwrecks, Cyclops, brave heroes and seductive sex goddesses. But it’s also got revenge, true love and existential angst.
On these timelines: In Our Time (BBC podcast), Resources: Combined
Around 700 BCE
- Homer's Iliad and Odyssey (750 BCE)
- Founding of Rome (traditional) (753 BCE)
- Cyrus the Great (600 BCE)
- Upanishads composed (800 BCE)
- Neo-Babylonian Empire (626 BCE)
- Homer (800 BCE)
- Greek alphabet developed (800 BCE)
- Spring and Autumn period (771 BCE)
- Reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (605 BCE)
- Rise of the polis (750 BCE)