Homer's epic The Iliad wasn't really my favorite of the two infamous poems, persay, but it was the most fun to read. In that I mean it was the most fun to make fun of. (I actually liked the Odyssey very much.)

The Greeks idolized such wonderful traits as self-centeredness, outer beauty, and the ability to send your best friend into combat in your place, then be absolutely shocked when he's killed and blame the guy who killed him, rather than yourself for sending him out in the first place.

They traded women like cattle, and believed them to be man's punishment for fire. Yet we look upon these stories as fantastic works by a great writer (writers?). Why? Because they were written a long time ago? Because the wording was so exquisite? Were the names just so cool we feel that these novel-esque poems written by some unknown Grecian should be treated so royally? Or is it because these poems, in all their violence and shallowness, show us just how little we as humans have changed over the millennia?