This is tough, you know

The whole thing started a while ago, when I was reading through the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. The many references of John Keats made me curious so I consulted a few encyclopaedias and found a few entries that directly converted into a new "To read"-List:

- Homer: the Iliad
- Ovid: the Metamorphoses
- John Milton: Paradise Lost (tough stuff .. tried twice already)
- John Keats: Hyperion, the Fall of Hyperion, Endymion

amongst a few other things.

The tough thing for me is not really the language, used by these authors, or the sometimes difficult narrative form, I rather fail at knowing about the figures. Trying to read Paradise Lost when you know virtually nothing about biblical history or the Bible itself is like trying to decipher skaldic poetry without any help and it's quite a while since I read the Iliad .. I never even tried to read the Metamorphoses.
The only religious texts I know are from the Edda and half of those texts .. or more, have nothing to do with religion at all.

.. And while I'm on it: How come such epics are not written anymore? I know that some authors still write epic texts but those are not as popular as the ancient works we know today. Maybe my information is just wrong or we have the wrong idea of popularity - maybe only a handful of influential persons went crazy about them - but after all. I don't see challenging texts leading the Bestseller Lists. Sad but true

Any thoughts?

I'll go read some scandinavian literature now for my next exams. Wish me luck!

EDIT:
Here's the rest of my current "To Read"List .. at least the part I want to read

- James Clavell: Shogun (German translation by Th. Knauf Nachf. GmbH & Co.)
- George Orwell: 1984 (German Translation by Michael Walter)
- Nelson Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom
- James Fenimore Cooper: Thr Last of the Mohicans
- Dan Simmons: Ilium
- Douglas Adams: The Ultimate Hithhiker's Guide
after I went through some of my lists:
- Dianne Wynne Jones: Sophie im Schloß des Zauberers (German translation by Gabriele Haefs)
- James Joyce: Ulysses
- Leo N. Tolstoi: War and Peace
- Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray
- James George Frazer: The Golden Bough
- Laotse: Tao Te King (German translation by Reclam)
- Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations
... list most likely still incomplete