Who is the traditional author of the Iliad?

Who is the traditional author of the Iliad? Homer is the traditional author.

Ancient Greek tradition attributed the Iliad to Homer, the legendary poet also associated with the Odyssey. The poem tells part of the Trojan War, focusing especially on Achilles’ anger, his conflict with Agamemnon, and the consequences of Patroclus’s death.

Modern scholarship treats “Homer” more cautiously. The epic developed within a long oral tradition, using repeated formulas and scenes that helped singers compose and perform thousands of lines in dactylic hexameter. Scholars continue to debate whether Homer was a single historical poet, a name representing a tradition, or both.

The Iliad is not the work of Virgil, whose Aeneid was written centuries later in Latin. Euripides and Sophocles were Greek dramatists, best known for tragedies rather than archaic epic. The Iliad itself is divided into 24 books and survives in a textual tradition shaped by ancient performance, copying, and later editorial work.