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Man is the Measure of all Things The Iliad and the Odyssey were written by Homer in the eighth century B.C. Homer is given credit as being the father of epic poetry. Through these poems, Homer captured the essence of what man is and the dreams of what man wanted to be. He set these poems against the political chaos, the Trojan War, of his time. Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey to evoke an emotional and intellectual response from his fellow man. The Iliad and the Odyssey will prove to be literature that shapes a nation. The Iliad and the Odyssey, although written in the eighth century B.C., have been used by many writers over the centuries. These two epics show their characters to be human by showing the fears, happiness and the love of life that each has. These poems also show that death is a part of life that no person can escape no matter who that person may be. This formula has been copied over and over by writers for 3,000 years. Homer captured truths that were common to his people and are still common to all of man kind to this day. Writers have reworked his two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, by rewriting them to tell a story that reflects the ideas and circumstances common