The story of the siege of Troy is truly a remarkable one, filled with heroism and tragedy.

Here, there are numerous unforgettable characters, both gods and heroes, making it feel as if one is watching an old black and white movie with those incredible crowds, similar to what is seen in Ben Hur.

One can envision the vast encampment of the Greeks surrounding Troy, smell the cooking fires, and hear the laughter in the camp. There are also the jeers at the wall and the frustration on both sides as the siege drags on and on.

The epic battles near the end, which claim the lives of some of mythology's greatest heroes like Achilles and Hector, are simply beyond description.

The Rouse translation, although a bit dry, still does an excellent job of bringing this classic tale to life.

I would be very interested in hearing from commenters about alternate translations. However, this particular translation, which is somewhat of a classic, is the only one I have tried.

The Iliad is a heroic epic poem that takes place during the final years of the Trojan War.

The Trojan War lasted for ten years and began when Paris, the son of King Priam, abducted Helen, the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta, and returned with her to Troy.

Agamemnon assembled an army to besiege Troy, and among the leaders of the army was the hero Achilles.

In the beginning, Achilles withdraws from the war due to a dispute with Agamemnon.

However, he returns with great force after the death of one of his close friends and is able to kill Hector, the prince of Troy.

The epic is rich in characters and combines the world of the gods and the world of men.

It presents all the details of the battles and the fighting between the Greeks and the Trojans.

The gods intervene in various ways to assist the combatants on both sides.

3½ stars

Finally finishing The Iliad solved two mysteries for me.

First, it's evident why these Ancient Greek stories have endured for so long. It's filled with gory violence and sex. Homer was an early adopter of these marketing tools.

Second, I now understand the origin of puritanical attitudes towards female sexuality. Pretty much all the bad things that occur are caused by Helen of Troy running off with Paris and Hera seducing Zeus. The ancients must have read this and thought, "please, girls, just... don't."

Also: I might have been too hard on Sarah J. Maas and her mist-rising, earth-shaking sex scenes. Clearly, she was inspired by Homer:

\\n  “The son of Cronus spoke and took his wife in his arms; and the divine earth sent up spring flowers beneath them, dewy clover and crocuses and a soft and crowded bed of hyacinths, to lift them off the ground. In this they lay, covered by a beautiful golden cloud, from which a rain of glistening dewdrops fell.”\\n

It took me so long to read this because I kept comparing it to The Odyssey, which I prefer. Odysseus's journey and encounters with creatures like cannibal giants are highly entertaining. And, to be honest, I can only enjoy so many war scenes. Since The Iliad is all about the Trojan War, there are numerous war scenes.

However, it is redeemed by the Greek gods. The Greek pantheon is a ridiculously bickering soap opera. I actually laughed out loud several times. I like the Greek gods because they are so flawed, jealous, vindictive, and, well, human. Hera, in particular, is quite a character. I love her. Sometimes you have to wonder what the Ancient Greeks were thinking when they imagined their gods like this. From Hera calling Artemis a \\"shameless bitch\\" like something out of Mean Girls, to all the gods supporting their favorite team (Greek or Trojan) in the war as if it were a football match.

The Iliad improves in the last eight books. It's more of a struggle in the beginning (mainly books 4-13) because some pages blend together in a stream of similar-sounding Greek and Trojan men stabbing each other with spears. Often in the nipple or buttocks, which seems rather peculiar.

But I'll stop being silly. It is a remarkable - albeit admittedly sexist - work. It's strange to think that the themes and values that were important 3,000 years ago are still relevant today. I don't know if Homerian spoilers are a thing, but I'll just say that the one death, the death of the story, can still be felt deeply all these years after its writing. The only thing more tragic than losing the one you love most is knowing you could have prevented it.

I was disappointed that my library didn't have the Caroline Alexander translation, which is the first English translation by a woman, but Rieu’s Translation was excellent. It was very smooth reading, unlike another recent read of mine - The Epic of Gilgamesh. I'm glad I finally read it.

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

My Prince

“Hector! You were dearest to me among all my husband’s brothers. My husband, Paris, who was as magnificent as a god, brought me here to Troy. Oh, how I wish I had died before that fateful day! But now, it has been twenty years since I sailed here and left my native land. Yet, never once did I hear a taunt or an insult from you. But if someone else in the royal halls would curse me, whether it was one of your brothers, sisters, or brothers’ wives, trailing their long robes, or even your own mother - not your father, who was always as kind as my own father - you would restrain them with your words, Hector. You would win them to my side with your gentle temper and all your gentle words. And so, in the same breath, I mourn for you and me. My doom-struck, harrowed heart! Now there is no one left in the wide realm of Troy who will treat me kindly. All the countrymen cringe from me in loathing!”

This passage from the story of Troy truly showcases the complex emotions and relationships within the city. Hector was such a noble and kind figure, and his absence is deeply felt by the speaker. It makes one wonder about the fates of all those involved in this tragic tale.

P.S. Hollywood really dropped the ball with the movie! It was just one violent, gruesome, bloody fight scene after another. If they had just gotten rid of Brad Pitt and Briseis' love story subplot, they would have been half-way there! Jeez...

p.p.s. This story is so much better than the Odyssey.

p.p.p.s. I hate you, Athena. Don't you have anything better to do than meddle in everyone's business??

The famous battle of Achilles and Hector is engraved on an ancient vase; beneath the feet of the warriors, the body of Patroclus, Achilles' friend, has fallen.

The Iliad, the epic of Homer, is the most famous heroic poem of the Greek court that recounts the ten-year war between the Greeks and the Trojans (or Ilion). Many of the Greek myths (the gods living on Mount Olympus, the great heroes like Achilles and Hector, etc.) we know today only through this book.

However, what makes this epic truly brilliant for me, who is not a mythologist or an expert in ancient Greek literature, are three things: a powerful narrative, masterful character portrayal, and precise and vivid descriptions.

The narrative is extremely splendid. The causal and conditional relationships between events are like a solid chain, connecting the entire story. Everything has a reason, and even the interference of the gods in the war is subject to the motives and reasons of the story. Moreover, the events that occur are very beautiful and dramatic. The grief of the Trojan elders and the demand for judgment by Paris, the anger of Achilles and his withdrawal from the war, the rescue of Achilles by his friend and his revenge, and so on.

The character portrayal is so masterful that one might think the story was written in the last hundred years, not 2800 or, according to some accounts, 4000 years ago. The characters are not one-dimensional; they are human beings with a thousand dimensions. Their reactions are so natural that one thinks if I were in their place, I would do the same. Even the gods are no exception to this rule. The grief of the Trojan elders is completely human. The anger of Achilles is completely human. The disrespect of Achilles towards the body of Hector out of the intensity of his anger is completely human. And hundreds of other examples.

Finally, the descriptions are very, very precise and vivid. The descriptions of the battles are so detailed and full of fascinating details that one thinks Homer described each battle inspired by a real battle he had personally witnessed. Achilles throws his spear at Hector to find his weak point, Menelaus grabs Paris' helmet and tries to strangle him with the chinstrap to silence him, and so on.

Try never to look down on any woman.

Every woman is unique and has her own set of qualities, abilities, and strengths. She may be a loving mother, a dedicated professional, a kind friend, or a creative artist. By looking down on her, we are not only disrespecting her as an individual but also missing out on the opportunity to learn from her and build a positive relationship.

Moreover, looking down on women can have a negative impact on society as a whole. It can lead to gender inequality, discrimination, and violence. We should strive to treat every woman with respect, dignity, and equality, regardless of her race, religion, age, or social status.

In conclusion, let us all make a conscious effort to never look down on any woman. Instead, let us celebrate her achievements, support her dreams, and work together to create a more inclusive and equal world for all.

The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem penned by Homer. It offers his take on the events that unfolded during a few weeks of the tenth and final year of the Trojan War. Homer's narrative commences from the moment Achilles has a falling out with the Greek King, Lord Agamemnon, and decides to shun the war. It then progresses to the time when he re-enters the fray and slays the Trojan hero, Hector, to avenge the death of his friend and companion, Patroclus.

After delving into The Odyssey, I felt an urge to revisit The Iliad. The idea that I might not have fully grasped its essence persisted. I initially read a prose version, but this time, I turned to the poetic translation by Alexander Pope. And I must admit, the outcome was astonishing. Not only did I understand it better, but I also came to fully appreciate the depth of Homer's artistry. In this new perspective, I feel compelled to amend my previous review to convey my most genuine thoughts on this remarkable classic.

In my first reading, I misconstrued the role of the Gods. I believed they unjustly dictated and interfered in the men's war, thwarting their valor. However, upon rereading, I now comprehend that it was fate that governed all, and the Gods' role was to facilitate the course of fate. Of course, the Gods supported their chosen camps. Some sided with the Greeks, whom they believed had been wronged by the treachery of Paris of Troy, while others sided with the Trojans, due to their faithful reverence of the mighty Olympian Gods. But not even the all-powerful Zeus could alter what fate had decreed for the mortal men. Once I fully understood the roles of God, men, and fate, I was able to view the entire story through a new lens and appreciate and enjoy the tale for its true worth.

The Iliad is a tragedy. Its main themes are honor, loyalty, glory, and revenge. It was not the most pleasant read. There is an excessive emphasis on the descriptions of the gruesome details of war. The dramatic quality with which Homer has woven his poem creates such a vivid portrayal of battle scenes and horrific deaths that I found many passages difficult to endure. At the same time, I couldn't help but admire Homer's ability to paint such realistic pictures through his精湛的 writing. Moreover, I could sense the fury of the men of both camps as they lunged at each other with weapons drawn; I could hear their war cries. I could also hear the sound of the wheels of the chariots carrying the warriors to battle, the clanging of weapons, and the groans and moans of the dead. It was truly more than just a reading experience.

The narrator of the tale, as he guides us through the present events, also fills in the gaps of the past and makes predictions for the future. This method of recounting the story provides a complete picture, even though, in the strictest sense, the poem only describes a few weeks of the final year of the Trojan War. The writing is highly descriptive. Whether it's a battle scene, weapons, the general setting, or characters (both men and Gods), nothing has escaped Homer's meticulous scrutiny. Even the pedigree of each character is described! Although these details can be overwhelming at times, they are nevertheless helpful in understanding the story better.

It is truly amazing how this epic poem, which is said to have been written in the 7th or 8th centuries BC (or BCE), has captivated and continues to captivate generations of readers. This in itself is evidence of the true mastery of its author. When all aspects are considered, it's no wonder that Homer is regarded as the pioneer of Western Classics.

A word must be said about the translation. Personally, I believe it is one of the best. As the translator himself has stated, the essence of a translation is to capture the true spirit of the work being translated without being overly burdened by the strict accuracy of the meaning. When compared with the first translation I read and my corresponding response with my current perception, I clearly see the wisdom of Pope. It is the spirit that matters.

Rage — Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles,

murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,

hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,

great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion,

feasts for the dogs and birds, and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end. Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed, Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles.

From the Introduction...

The most marvelous lines in the Iliad owe their unearthly, poignant beauty to the presence of violence, held momentarily in reserve but brooding over the landscape. They are the lines that end Book 8 and describe the Trojans camped on the plain, awaiting the next dawn, which will launch them on their attack on the Greek fortification.

"And so their spirits soared

as they took positions down the passageways of battle

all night long, and the watchfires blazed among them.

Hundreds strong, as stars in the night sky glittering

round the moon’s brilliance blaze in all their glory

when the air falls to a sudden, windless calm...

all the lookout peaks stand out and the jutting cliffs

and the steep ravines and down from the high heaven bursts

the boundless bright air and all the stars shine clear

and the shepherd’s heart exults— so many fires burned

between the ships and the Xanthus’ whirling rapids

set by the men of Troy, bright against their walls."

(8.636-49)

These are surely the clearest hills, the most brilliant stars and the brightest fires in all poetry, and everyone who has waited to go into battle knows how true the lines are, how clear and memorable and lovely is every detail of the landscape the soldier fears he may be seeing for the last time.

The synopsis....

Chryses, a priest of Apollo, whose daughter has been carried off by the Achaeans in one of their raids, comes to the camp to ransom her. But she has been assigned, in the division of the booty, to the king who commands the Achaean army, Agamemnon, and he refuses to give her up. Her father prays for help to Apollo, who sends a plague that devastates the Achaean camp. Achilles, leader of the Myrmidons, one of the largest contingents of the Achaean army, summons the chieftains to an assembly. There they are told by the prophet Calchas that the girl must be returned to her father. Agamemnon has to give her up, but demands compensation for his loss. Achilles objects: let Agamemnon wait until more booty is taken. A violent quarrel breaks out between the two men, and Agamemnon finally announces that he will take recompense for his loss from Achilles, in the form of the girl Briseis, Achilles’ share of the booty. Achilles represses an urge to kill Agamemnon and withdraws from the assembly, threatening to leave for home, with all his troops, the next day. The priest’s daughter is restored to him, Apollo puts an end to the plague, and Briseis is taken away from Achilles’ tent by Agamemnon’s heralds.

Zeus turns the tide of battle against the Achaeans. The Trojan leader Hector, son of Troy’s old King Priam, drives the Achaeans back on their beached ships, round which they are forced to build a wall and ditch. Achilles withdraws his threat to leave the next day; he will stay until Hector and the Trojans reach his own ships.

Patroclus goes into battle with Achilles’ troops, wearing Achilles’ armor. This is enough: the Trojans in their turn are thrown back. But Patroclus is killed by the god Apollo, Troy’s protector, and by Hector, who strips off Achilles’ armor and puts it on himself.

Achilles’ rage is now directed against Hector, the killer of his dearest friend. He is reconciled with Agamemnon, and as soon as his mother brings him a splendid suit of armor, made by the smith-god Hephaestus, he returns to the battle, and after slaughtering many Trojans, meets and kills Hector. He lashes Hector’s corpse to his chariot and drags it to his own tent; he intends to throw it to the dogs and birds of prey.

But the body has been preserved from corruption by divine intervention, and the gods now decide (not unanimously, for Hera and Athena object) to send a message to Achilles through his mother: he is to release Hector’s body for ransom paid by King Priam of Troy. Achilles agrees. His mother has told him that his death is to come soon after Hector’s. He sends Priam safely back with Hector’s body to Troy and so, runs the last line of the poem, “the Trojans buried Hector breaker of horses” (24.944 in the translation). We know already that the death of Troy’s main defender seals the fate of the city and that, as Thetis told Achilles: “hard on the heels of Hector’s death your death / must come at once”

The Illiad is about human flaws that lead to disaster---ego, violence and bloodshed, that we know only too well. And the gods do their best to make things worse. However, Achilles is depicted as the ideal aristocratic male hero.

Simone Weil essay on the Illiad....

http://biblio3.url.edu.gt/SinParedes/...

Am I truly going to take the trouble to review Homer's _Iliad_?

I mean, what could I possibly say that hasn't already been said by countless generations of scholars, reviewers, and readers?

Does one more opinion in the vast ocean of commentary really matter?

Well, even if it doesn't, I suppose I'll give it a try.

Reading the _Iliad_ was mainly a corrective measure for what I perceived as a gap in my education.

I had always known snippets and fragments about the poem and its heroes from various sources and from the general culture, but I had never actually read the poem itself.

Given that it is a foundational text (perhaps *the* foundational text along with its sister epic The Odyssey) of the western canon, it was a rather significant gap.

Well, I did it!

I found myself both compelled and, I'll admit it, sometimes bored by the text (though mostly only when we delved into the epic tradition of spelling out the lineage of each character in excruciating detail before said hero was gruesomely dispatched by an enemy's spear thrust).

Still, once I made it through Book II's seemingly endless catalogue of the Achaean heroes who came to Troy along with the number of ships and men they brought with them, I knew that nothing could stop me.

My biggest surprise was probably the way in which the heroes, all seemingly born of the gods, are not all that different from superheroes in a comic book: forces of raw destruction whose primary desire is for glory and the frenzied rush of violence and battle.

And yet even these great figures pale in comparison to the gods who play them like puppets on a string, watching events unfold before them and giving a nudge here and there when the outcome for their favored side is in doubt (indeed, for me some of the most humorous moments occurred when a god would unceremoniously pluck a warrior from the ground and punt him into the distance to keep him safe, like some giant hand in a gamer's favorite RTS strategy game).

It was these images and analogies, inadequate as they may seem, that kept popping into my mind as I read about the epic battle between the Achaeans and the Trojans.

In that sense, at least, it was a surprisingly modern text for me.

The poem is filled, on both sides of the conflict, with men who are larger than life.

Of course, the great exemplars of each side, Achilles and Hector, stand out above the rest, but both armies are teeming with what seem to be giants whose every action in battle is a superhuman carnage fest.

The roll call of the Achaeans alone is impressive: wily Odysseus, prideful Agamemnon, wise Nestor, courageous Diomedes, and both the Greater and the Lesser Ajax.

Of course, if you're not a hero and don't have a god or at least a royal personage in your near lineage, then you're really just cannon fodder whose primary purpose is to allow the real fighters to show off their skill in the art of death-dealing.

Indeed, fighting is all about the individual fighter's glory and his desire for booty...stripping the corpses is more important than pursuing a tactical advantage.

Ego is everything.

This is a frightening vision of what a world of superheroes might look like, with the lowly peons at the mercy of their violence and glory-seeking.

The boast and the taunt are also on full display.

Each hero seeks to undermine his opponent with a war of words before the spear has even left his hand.

Lineages are vaunted or disparaged; deeds are proclaimed or ridiculed; most of all, threats are made and reciprocated.

Old Spidey of the glib tongue has nothing on these guys.

("I too could battle the deathless gods with words — it's hard with a spear, the gods are so much stronger. Not even Achilles can bring off all his boasts…” – Hector)

The violence in the poem is explicit and all-pervasive, a veritable orgy of death and dismemberment.

From the brains splattered inside helmets by a spear's intrusion to the “lethal hit that's loosed [a body's] springy limbs”, we are constantly presented with a vivid array of violence that brings down the mists of death, a “dark [that] came whirling down across [their] eyes”, upon the stricken warriors.

Homer was apparently no prude and was happy to indulge his audience's apparent appetite for such scenes.

The battle scenes are also truly cinematic, both in their colorful gore and in the superhuman skill displayed by the combatants, as foe after foe is effortlessly dispatched in an almost balletic whirl of pure violence.

Achilles is perhaps the most conspicuous in this, no more so than when he at last enters the fray near the end of the poem, maddened at the death of his friend Patroclus, and fells Trojans left and right:

Achilles now like inhuman fire raging on through the mountain gorges splinter-dry, setting ablaze big stands of timber, the wind swirling the huge fireball left and right — chaos of fire — Achilles storming on with brandished spear like a frenzied god of battle trampling all he killed and the earth ran black with blood.…so as the great Achilles rampaged on, his sharp-hoofed stallions trampled shields and corpses, axle under his chariot splashed with blood, blood on the handrails sweeping round the car, sprays of blood shooting up from the stallions' hoofs and churning, whirling rims — and the son of Peleus charioteering on to seize his glory, bloody filth splattering both strong arms, Achilles' invincible arms

Indeed, the rage of Achilles is a primal thing.

The seemingly excessive violence of his comrades and their enemies prior to his entering the fray is made to seem a pale, feeble thing in comparison.

Achilles is a whirlwind of bloodlust, hatred, and retribution whose only aim is the eradication of the Trojans and their great prince Hector as payment for the death of his old friend.

Despite the great power that each of these heroes displays, it is not necessarily an entirely innate function of the hero's mighty thews and prowess alone, for it is made clear throughout the text that the real prerequisite for success is the blessing of a god, regardless of the native power and skill of the individual fighter.

The gods seem at first content to mostly sit on the sidelines, restricting themselves to aiding and abetting their favorite hero with a nudge here and a push there until, with the advent of Achilles and his killing rage, even Zeus fears that the outcome of the battle may change and the decrees of fate may be unbalanced by a mere mortal.

He then lets the gods loose and they fight for their chosen sides in a free-for-all that is impressive in its violence and imagery, where one telling thing comes immediately to the fore: the gods are much less interested in maintaining the balance of fate for the betterment of the cosmos than they are in using this excuse to fight their own grudge matches against perceived and real slights from their divine rivals.

In many ways, the gods are perhaps even more prevalent in the battle for Troy than are the human participants.

This is fitting given the fact that a contest among the major goddesses, and the perceived slight of its result by the losers, were the direct antecedents to the war that would destroy a civilization.

I'm not sure how Paris could have judged the beauty contest between Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera in a way that wouldn't have ended in bloodshed and mass genocide, but he certainly didn't try very hard once the goddess of love dangled the prospect of Menelaus' beauteous wife before him.

This picking of love above worldly authority or wisdom and supremacy in war may seem like a purely pacific and even noble choice, but it often seems that even love as expressed in _The Iliad_ appears to be a fundamentally selfish thing.

Helen, the human paradigm of beauty, and her divine patron Aphrodite, are both interested in ‘love’ not as something that expresses affection or devotion to another, but rather something that glorifies the self.

Helen deserts her husband and child for Paris, and even this ‘love’ seems to be more a reflection of her own egoism and an expression of her power over him than any sort of true affection for the son of Priam.

That being said, there is one set of relationships that seem to look beyond the demands of heroic culture and the vanity of the self: these are primarily seen in the quiet moments of humanity in Hector's love for his wife and child (and really for all of his family, even spoiled bratty Paris, and for Troy itself).

One could also point to the love of Priam for his dead son, and the need to redeem his mutilated corpse at any cost (even unto walking into the enemy camp with only a servant and a cart full of booty), as another example of the love of others overcoming the love of self.

There were a plethora of great moments in the poem, but this review is already getting overly long, so allow me to simply name the ones that immediately come to mind: the night raid of Diomedes and Odysseus into the Trojan lines, the lone stand and battle cry of Odysseus after the Achaeans run in terror from pursuing Trojan warriors, the coming ashore of the Nereids at the bidding of Thetis to comfort Achilles, Athena's arming with the storm-shield of Zeus, the gathering of the Rivers in Olympus, Hephaestus boiling a river god in his own bed in defense of Achilles, and the empowerment of Achilles before his death-dealing drive among the Trojans, to name but a few.

In the end, this was a greatly entertaining read that surprised me in many ways.

Of course, it wasn't all dismemberment and bloody glory; there was human suffering and despair (both at the hands of the ‘heroes’ and of the gods), and many questions were raised about freewill versus one's fate (Fate seems to have the deck stacked in his favor).

I was constantly surprised by the little touches made by Homer: Zeus being wooed by Hera so she could distract him from aiding the Trojans (in the course of which he enumerates the allures of his former lovers as part of his seduction strategy…what a charmer!); Hector deciding to leave his men to face death alone in a tight moment and the twin episode of Hector's very real fear of death, such a great fear that he actually runs away from Achilles in panic before deciding to face his fate (not exactly the inhuman hero I was expecting to see); Agamemnon showing himself to be a blustering politician, attempting to save face and excuse himself at the same time as he tries to apologize to Achilles.

The fact that the poem both begins and ends in medias res may leave some modern readers a bit confused (we enter the fray ten years after the war's inception and leave with the city of Troy still standing), but it truly is a masterpiece of the poet's art.

Whether Homer was one man or many, whether he composed it primarily from an amalgam of the existing tradition of epic poetic devices or it came primarily from the mind of a genius, it is a work that does stand the test of time and is well worth the time of any reader (or listener) ancient or modern.

Maybe it's silly that I'm writing this... What should I write about the Iliad? Again, if I had written it, it would be interesting to read what I thought when I read it in high school. I remember reading it aloud just to understand what was written in that hexameter. Of course, that's how it was created and passed down. A reciter comes to town and recites the Iliad for 3 or 4 days in a row, and people listen. And secondly, Achilles was a really cool character for me (why, Nikola?!)

(The Iliad and the Odyssey were created when the Greeks forgot how to write. How do you learn this by heart without having the text in front of you? How was it created in the first place if they didn't write it down - how did Homer learn what he told? And how were they written down for the first time? Someone learned to write, and then another came and recited? The scribe still writes on papyrus, and that's slow. Or did the reciter learn to write and then sit down to do that job?)

Rereading it... Is it possible that something created over 3,000 years ago is also the best thing ever written?

----------

Observations.

1. Everything is really strange on one hand - a fairy tale with myths, superhuman strength, strange gods. And yet, it's so familiar even after 3,000 years. Those gods are so similar to us, Achilles' anger and subjectivity I can imagine in a politician, as well as Hector's concern for his family and city.

2. The catalog of ships is crap, don't bother. How many people will give up reading in the second canto?

3. I'm surprised again that this is a story about only 10 days of war (although, I don't agree with some of that timing, towards the end different durations are mentioned, someone misremembered what Homer said). It starts in the middle of the story and ends in the middle of the story. And one, that longest day of Hector's superpowers, lasts almost a third of the Iliad.

4. Some scenes are repeated, literally word for word the same verses are used. A stylistic device or something that helped the reciters learn it more easily? And what's with "ox-eyed" Hera and "Achaeans with golden helmets"?

5. How Achilles cursed Agamemnon at the beginning. This is a king, for God's sake. And did Achilles overdo it with his stubbornness? How many deaths did he cause to the Greeks while he wasn't fighting? And he managed to seriously anger the gods.

6. The gods are great. They aren't always good, kind, or just. (Is our concept of God wrong?) The gods aren't omnipotent, nor omniscient. They have many human flaws - if we look at them from the perspective of the people in the Iliad, they are powerful and extraordinary, but if we look at them from the perspective of the narrator, then they are petty and subject to evil. They didn't create the world, they have no sympathy or love for people (they have for some, if those are their children created with people, for example). And yet, they are so great. I can't choose my favorite god. I told my daughter - she now says at school that we are actually religious in our family, but we are polytheists.

7. My favorite character among the Greeks? Odysseus or Ajax? The jury is still out.

8. The Trojans aren't barbarians, they speak Greek, they worship the same gods. But they are still enemies. We should cheer for the Greeks. But the Trojans are more sympathetic - they don't fight (only) for honor and glory, they fight for life, for their city, for their families. Their women and children will be raped and/or enslaved. Hector is a human being - a commander, a son, a brother, a husband, a father... His scenes with his wife and son are among the best in the Iliad. On the other hand, the Greeks can only lose their life. Achilles is inhuman, like some superhero. He is isolated, withdrawn from society. Cold, unreasonable, selfish, subjective, and towards the end, with the mutilation of the enemy, a complete barbarian. He doesn't understand death, he cries like a little baby.

9. The gods can't be hurt, they can't die. Therefore, there is no bravery among them. Does that mean that people are better than the gods?

10. The described battles in the longest, Hector's, day are sympathetic. If you read how the people in the Iliad see them, then everything is logical, you can imagine that everything really happened like that. They are the ones who influence the events and death. But we, the readers, know so much more. We see what Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Iris, Ares... did in those battles. Reading in parallel - it's incredible this interference in the fate of individuals. What those people (uhm, gods) are doing. Again, there are parts when Zeus wants to interfere and save someone, and the other gods don't let him. You can't stop fate, they tell him approximately.

11. That when Hera deceives Zeus to divert his attention. The most spiritual part of the Iliad?

12. Why don't I have any emotions towards Patroclus? He is some minor character who gets great glory, but is it for the reason that he has to die so the story can continue? Or is there something in his behavior after all?

13. Did I understand correctly that all people have one fate, and Achilles has two, he can choose? If he returns home, he will live happily and long. But if he stays to fight, he will die and gain eternal glory. Actually, it wasn't that easy for him to choose, I think. Not only did he stubbornly refuse because of Briseis, but I think he really thought about this. Of course, this is an epic, and glory had such value for the Greeks that it couldn't be otherwise.

14. "So they buried Hector the charioteer." The end. Wait, where is Achilles' death? Where is Achilles' heel? The Trojan horse? The fall of Troy, the burning, the rape? They can tell me that I can read (the lost?) epic about that, but that I have to pay with days of real life - how many days would I give?

The Iliad, which means "a poem about Ilium (Troy)", is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. Just like the Odyssey, it is divided into 24 books and written in dactylic hexameter. The most widely accepted version contains 15,693 lines. Set towards the end of the Trojan War, a ten-year siege of Troy by a coalition of Mycenaean Greek states, the poem depicts significant events in the siege's final weeks. In particular, it focuses on the fierce quarrel between King Agamemnon and the celebrated warrior, Achilles.

There are two godlike human beings in the poem, Achilles and Helen. Helen, the "cause" of the war, is like a human Aphrodite, irresistible. Every king in Greece was willing to fight for her hand in marriage, but she chose Menelaus, King of Sparta. When Paris, the Prince of Troy, visited, she ran off with him (or was abducted, depending on the interpretation), leaving her husband and daughter without considering the consequences for others. At the beginning of the Iliad, she has already recognized her flaws and feels responsible for the human misery around her, something the gods never do.

At the start of the Iliad, Helen has broken out of self-absorption, but this is when Achilles enters it. The poem shows the origin, course, and consequences of his rage, his imprisonment in a godlike, lonely, heroic fury, and his return to human stature. The road to his final release is long and grim, filled with the corpses of many Greeks and Trojans, and it leads to his own death.

Achilles plays no part in the events in Books 2 through 8. He sits by his ships on the shore, waiting for his mother's promise to be fulfilled. By the end of Book 8, the Greeks are in retreat, and Agamemnon yields to Nestor's advice to send an embassy to Achilles, urging him to return to the battle line. However, Achilles rejects the embassy as Agamemnon offers no apology.

Due to a series of events, mainly the death of his beloved fellow warrior Patroclus at the hands of Hector, Achilles decides to join the war. When he enters battle, the Trojans flee, and only Hector remains. The contrast between Achilles' raw, self-absorbed fury and Hector's civilized responsibility and restraint is maintained until the end. Hector dies, and Achilles exults over his fallen enemy, revealing his extreme hatred.

Achilles lashes Hector's body to his chariot and drags it to his tent. During the funeral games for Patroclus, he acts with tact, diplomacy, and generosity, seemingly signaling the end of his isolation. However, he still refuses to surrender Hector's body to Priam.

Only when Priam visits Achilles in his tent and kisses his hand does Achilles break free from his self-absorbed passion. He takes Priam's hands and weeps, not for Priam but for his own father. Achilles then goes to collect the ransom and orders Hector's body to be washed and anointed out of Priam's sight, showing a newfound pity for others and self-knowledge.

The tragic course of Achilles' rage and his final recognition of human values is the guiding theme of the poem, set against a background of violence and death. The brutality of war is interrupted by scenes that remind us of the yearning for peace, especially in Troy. However, the Iliad remains a terrifying poem, with no consolation for the death of Hector. It is not only the greatest epic poem but also the most tragic, leaving us with a sense of waste and the lesson that no civilization can long survive without the power to meet force with equal or superior force.

Since I discovered that the Iliad had a phrase that would be useful for my graduation work, I set a goal to read the book. Before, I had really wanted to read it, but this time it was different because my mental health was at stake. I feel that if I don't read a book that obsesses me, I won't be able to do well. I know it may sound strange, but books are a big part of my life. They direct each of my steps, my decisions, my thoughts. I don't know what I would do in a world without books, probably I wouldn't exist.

The phrase that helped me for my thesis is the following: "No one, then, should be in a hurry to return home until he has slept with the wife of a Trojan and avenged the flight and the moans of Helen." I relate this phrase in my thesis to sexual violence used as a weapon of war and other phrases that I find in the book were just as fruitful as this one. I have a lot to thank the Iliad and the Odyssey for because they are books that have deeply inspired me and I would recommend them to anyone with my eyes closed, as long as that person is patient and wants to develop a taste for Greco-Roman mythology. In addition, they have inspired me in my writings. It turns out that enclitic verbs are my weakness, I love them.

I recommend that you first read the Iliad, then the Odyssey and then the Divine Comedy if you specifically want to read these three books.

In summary: What is the Iliad like? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent book