[justin66]

> Who reads Homer in your country, and why?

In the US, pretty much everyone with a high school education reads at least some Homer in translation.

> I'm very curious what motivates people to learn dead languages and read books thousands years old.

You're conflating learning Ancient Greek with reading Homer, but most of us read Homer in translation. Having read at least a little Homer is very common in the United States, having learned Ancient Greek or Latin is more unusual.

The two obvious reasons for reading Homer: it's a good story, and it's foundational to our culture. I guess you could dive into what makes it a good enough story to keep it around for thousands of years, or why knowing anything about culture is important... you don't believe you're going to get an adequate explication of those matters in a short HN comment, do you?