Hi, I just started reading the Iliad and the Odyssey and I am curious about all the names and locations thrown about. I understand these names and places probably gave much information for the people it was originally made for, but I'm finding it hard connecting the dots on the 10 different locations one group of people is from. I am thoroughly enjoying it for the story it is meant to be, but there is an itch in my modernized brain that wants to connect all these greek city/village/island names with actual locations so I can get a better understanding of the picture. Does anyone know of a centralized place for all of this type of info for the Iliad and Odyssey, or am I stuck with just googling them, after I finish reading it once, to better understand where everything took place and who all these random names were?
While not every location mentioned in the epics has been securely identified, this aggregate map on Wikipedia seems like it would answer all your questions.
Your problem here seems to be a similar issue that I experienced when first picking these books up. The issue being that although you enjoy the story, you really have very little to no understanding about the characters portrayed, the political landscape at the time and the general geographic locations that the books are set in.
A LOT of knowledge is needed to fully understand these books, from deities to ancient traditions, the topics are varied and each person has to approach this in the way they find best suits them, especially if you didn’t study this at university.
I took the approach of reading the two books, enjoying the beauty of the words and then researching as much as I could about them. Once I felt I had a good enough understanding of them, I read them both a year later and it was like a whole new experience.
Good luck, and most importantly just have fun!
