What book(s) would you suggest?

edit: I mean travelling merchants, like caravans. If this seems vague then you know how much reading I have yet to do!

I've been looking into Greek literature, like the Odyssey, the story of the Trojan War, etc. I am trying to understand How exactly it affected their artwork?

I know a lot of their artwork reflected their Gods and religion, but how much actually stemmed from their literature?

If someone could point me in the right direction, that would be awesome!

Caesar is a popular word throughout history, showing itself in various languages. Basically my question is a more historically backed version of "what came first:the chicken or the egg".

In general where they accepting of it or did they view it as being wrong like most cultures of the time.

Did they try to grow it as long as possible or did they keep it short so it wouldn't interfere in battle? Specifically the raiders.

What do historians make of alleged eyewitness accounts of fantastical happenings in the pre-modern world? Delusions have also happened and so have outright lies but does this account for the eyewitness claims regarding witchcraft and other fantastical happenings? Did they have a different conception of truth or are the records not supposed to be taken literally like some readings of miracles in scriptures?

Watching "Django Unchained" got me thinking. Were bounties for criminals a real thing in American Society? Were the WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE signs for compensation a real thing? I know it's portrayed that way in movies, just wanted to see if that's the way it actually went down.

Thanks in advance for any info!

EDIT: Spelling

I am referring specifically to the Roman ruled lands of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and basically everything between the Tigris and Mediterranean. Did Christianity dominate as the majority religion in the middle east among the common populace or did the majority of the population follow another faith before the mass conversion to Islam?(I know not 100% converted, but it did eventually become the majority)

What information is there about the earliest beginnings of proselytism in India?

How was the film Apocalypse Now taken by veterans of Vietnam? Considering it's literary roots of the film, I was wondering if vets would have been interested in the comparison to Heart of Darkness or if they would resent that the war was being used for a contemporary retelling of Heart of Darkness.

I was inspired with this question when a coworker asked how to say "Gesunheit" in Ancient Greek. How would an Ancient Athenian, or someone living in the Roman Empire have responded to a sneeze? Is a perfunctory blessing a (relatively) recent concept? Would we have any records of this to begin with?

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My US history is terrible, and I'd really like to learn more about things like red-lining, the creation of Indian reservations, ways the US government tried to lift people out of poverty or exclude groups from being lifted out.

I remember when I was at Brugges I read a tourism info totem about the history before the Roman Empire there that I can't recall