イリアドとオデッセイは、ヒーローと神が人間と相互作用した時代に、古代ギリシャの神話上の過去に設定されています。イリアドの背景を形成するトロイの木馬戦争は、紀元前12世紀または13世紀頃に青銅器時代後期に起こったと考えられています。オデッセイはトロイの木馬戦争の後に行われ、オデュッセウスは地中海の世界を旅し、さまざまな神話の生き物に遭遇し、イサカの彼の家に戻った彼の旅で多くの障害に直面します。

対照的に、詩自体は、紀元前8世紀から6世紀まで続いた古代ギリシャの古風な時代として知られる時代に、はるかに遅れて構成されました。組成の正確な日付は不明ですが、一般的に、イリアドとオデッセイは、私たちが今日知っている形で最終的に書き留められる前に、数世紀にわたって口頭で伝染していたと考えられています。

詩は単に単一の著者によって書き留められたのではなく、口頭でのストーリーテリングとパフォーマンスの長い伝統の結果であったことに注意することが重要です。壮大な詩人または「ラプソード」は、詩を公の場で演奏し、しばしば聴衆と機会に合うように物語を即興し、適応させます。詩が編集され、今日の書かれたテキストに標準化されたのは、何世紀にもわたってです。
The Iliad and the Odyssey are set in the mythical past of ancient Greece, during a time when heroes and gods interacted with mortals. The Trojan War, which forms the backdrop of the Iliad, is believed to have taken place in the late Bronze Age, around the 12th or 13th century BCE. The Odyssey takes place after the Trojan War, as Odysseus travels through the Mediterranean world, encountering various mythological creatures and facing numerous obstacles on his journey back to his home in Ithaca.

In contrast, the poems themselves were composed much later, during a period known as the Archaic Period of ancient Greece, which lasted from the 8th to the 6th centuries BCE. The exact dates of composition are not known, but it is generally believed that the Iliad and the Odyssey were orally transmitted for several centuries before they were finally written down in the form that we know them today.

It is important to note that the poems were not simply written down by a single author, but were the result of a long tradition of oral storytelling and performance. The epic poets or "rhapsodes" would perform the poems in public, often improvising and adapting the story to suit the audience and the occasion. It is only in later centuries that the poems were compiled and standardized into the written texts that we have today.