Homer Books in Order
Homer's shelf is two epics - the war and the journey home - plus a penumbra the ancient world attributed to him: the Homeric Hymns and the lost Epic Cycle. The order question has one honest answer, Iliad first, because the Odyssey assumes you know how the war ended; the second question, which translation, is where a modern reader actually spends their decision. Nothing else survives from the eighth century BCE, which makes this the shortest complete shelf on this site and one of the most read (c. 750 BCE).
Where to start
The Iliad first, then The Odyssey. The Homeric Hymns only after both.
The complete list
Tick the boxes off as you read, or for the bookshelf.
| Year | Title | Series / type | |
|---|---|---|---|
| c. 750 BCE | The Iliad | the war epic — read first | |
| c. 750 BCE | The Odyssey | the journey home — read second | |
| c. 700 BCE | The Homeric Hymns | 33 songs to the gods | |
| c. 550 BCE | The Epic Cycle | the lost Troy poems — summaries only |
Does the reading order matter?
The Iliad, roughly 750 BCE: fifty days in the tenth year of the Trojan War, the rage of Achilles. The Odyssey, a generation later in story-time: ten years of getting home, the poem that assumes you know Troy fell. That is the order - the second poem mourns and revisits the first. After the two epics, the Homeric Hymns (c. 700 BCE) are the shorter shelf - thirty-three songs to the gods, with the Hymn to Demeter and the Hymn to Apollo the substantial ones. The Epic Cycle - the other lost poems about Troy, Aethiopis and the rest - survives only in summaries; know the name, read about it, do not hunt the books. On translation, three honest picks: Fagles for pace and English poetry, Lattimore for line-by-line Greek fidelity, and Emily Wilson for the freshest voice - her Odyssey (2017) and Iliad (2023) are the first woman's English translations of both. Wilson's are also the shortest
Which one is the best?
The Odyssey, the one most readers love first; The Iliad, the one critics put first; the Hymn to Demeter, the hidden third.
Covered in depth here
An 8-question quiz, reading time, club questions and verified quotes for The Odyssey.
Related guides
Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: Herman Melville books in order, Jack London books in order, Robert Louis Stevenson books in order. Every guide follows the same format — the shelf, the entry point, the honest answer about order.
Make it a project
Pick a session size and let the days accumulate — at the pace our reading speed test measures, most shelves above clear in a few weeks of half-hours. Every guide on the books in order shelf follows this same format, and when a book lands, its 8-question quiz is waiting on the original book quiz.
Frequently asked questions
What order should you read Homer books in?
Iliad → Odyssey → Homeric Hymns; on translation, Fagles, Lattimore or Wilson.
Where should I start with Homer?
The Iliad, then The Odyssey - the Hymns after both.
How many Homer books are there?
Two surviving epics and the Homeric Hymns, from the eighth century BCE - the fountainhead shelf of Western literature, translated into every language that has books. As of October 2026 this list is current.
What was Homer's first book?
The Iliad (c. 750 BCE) — the first row of the list above.