What historical context and knowledge should I have before

Some understanding of Hesiod's works may help get the mythological references, and a book on bronze age - dark period - second bronze age greek history may be useful, but desu you won't get it all the first time you read it anyways.
An important thing to know that I didn't when I first read it is that (I'm not sure how this is translated in english but it should be pretty close to the spanish version) the suffix -ida means
"the son of", like, when Homer says Zeus Chronida, it means Zeus, the son of Chronos.

>>9410440
Most English translations, as far as I know, translate it as "Chronos' son Zeus" or "Zeus, son of Chronos" or something of the sort. They don't use the Spanish suffix.

Do you know what the Trojan War is? That's really all you need to know.

>>9410468
It isn't a spanish suffix, m8, it's a greek one. Haven't you ever read the expression eupatridae?

>>9410378
nothing, just get ready for some cool battles and pottery

This pretty much covers it:

http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/arch/iliad/IliadGuide01.html

>>9410488
You do realize that Greek has a system of declensions, right? It's not always "-ida", and it changes a lot depending on the case. That's why I said Spanish, since it stays like that always and you were talking about it. If you want to be precise, sure, it's a Greek suffix.

>>9410378

Anatolia belongs to Hellas

>>9410378
i like that cover art

>>9410378
No history, but you need a solid understanding of Greek mythology, and even then you will have to look stuff up (or rely on footnotes)

assfucking culture

>>9410497
This is good