Should I read The Odyssey before Ulysses?

Should I read The Odyssey before Ulysses?
Does it make any difference reading Joyce's other work before Ulysses?

You should read the Odyssey before any other western book, actually.

Not before the Iliad though.
I read The Odyssey immediately before Ulysses and it let me catch some references, but I didn't find that it added much to my experience overall.

Should I read Illiad first or?

Yeah, read the Illiad first.

And you only really need to read the first half or so of the Odyssey to understand the big allusions in Ulysses. I still recommend reading all of it because it's an extremely useful story to be familiar with.

Dante and Shakespeare are good background too.

You can, and it elucidates things to some extent, but you really don't have to.

The books that I would most recommend reading before hand are Joyce's earlier works. Dubliners and then Portrait of the Artist. You can read Chamber Music if you want but I can only remember one reference to it in Ulysses so it's not that essential.

Reading Portrait of the Artist before Ulysses makes a world of difference. The character carries through. Odyssey isn't necessary but as others will have pointed out, there's no reaon for you not to read it for itself.

You should read
The odyssey
Hamlet
Maybe the bible
Dubliners
A portrait of the artist as a young man
You will never be able to understand every allusion though so it doesn't really matter what you read. It won't be enough

Chamber music as in the play set in the mental Asylum?
Im part of a production of that. Did not pick up any joyce references

As in the book of poems by James Joyce
His strength lies more in prose though

This plus Ibsen, Joyce worshiped Ibsen. Hedda Gabler and Ghosts were his favorites.

You don't have to but it's fun.

Chamber music refers to the sound a lady makes in a water closet

I've got a penguin collection entitled A Dolls House and other Plays.
Will that suffice

...

what happens if i don't?

i dunno you will just be less prepared

you die

Nothing, the allusions to other literature are superficial. If you listen to these people saying you need to read the entire western canon before Ulysses, you're just going to be desperately looking for literary references that aren't even very important, and missing the value of the text on its own

Read Dubliners, then Portrait, then Ulysses. The Homer is optional, especially for the first Ulysses read.

Woah, Dante had a last name

You have a lot of work ahead of you bruh

If you're asking this question in the first place, you're probably not ready for Ulysses.