I see, I misunderstood you and thought you were suggesting that the Iliad was in fact a "sacred text." I see know you were not saying that. I like several of

I see, I misunderstood you and thought you were suggesting that the Iliad was in fact a "sacred text." I see know you were not saying that. I like several of your other comments: > Homer is often thought to be describing events during the bronze dark age, the period between the collapse of middle eastern bronze age empires and the rise of iron age empires (like the greek one). > This is what the bible is too, to a large extent. The exodus, judges, King David, prophets, heros... Stories about the legendary dark age written by decendants during the early iron age. > As civilization (and population) re-grew these stories formed a cultural core. Judeans got swept into the aramean, babylonian, persian and later hellenic empires. The library of knowledge grew enourmously. But, the old stories still remained at the heart of the cultural. I think there are many parallels between the two.