Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

La Ilíada by Homer

46 reviews

gilnean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Genocide, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Excrement, and Vomit

chaos_positive's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

as dense as a overbaked fruit cake but if you are willing to take the trudge, it has a lot of very poignant themes, Achilles being chronically very angry, so many different ways people get killed by spears, genuinely very impressive, and if you choice to listen to it, even the very very long lists of who killed who and who's son they were become very rhythmic almost like a drumbeat march of the dead. also if you're tired of men in media not showing emotion you best believe these murder hobos clad in bronze cry for their fallen friends. also it might even make you laugh a few times like

there is actually two ajaxes and they are by in large referred to as ajax and ajax , also my favorite quote is, "ajax, you are excellent at quarreling and terrible at thinking" an absolutely marvelous insult

you might not like it if you are really put off about women literally being treated as objects, it was written a few thousand years before the suffragettes made that unpopular. (if you want the same vibes but with women with more agency check out the odyssey, women hold more power in that one and aren't traded like baseball cards)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Misogyny, Rape, and Sexual assault

it's very bloody and unforgiving, nobody is spared the suffering, but it's written in a way that distances you because it is so matter of fact about these things, a "this is how things are, no point dwelling on them unnecessarily" attitude.

mkordziel's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The Iliad is an epic of epic proportions. The story revolves around two conflicts: Greeks and Trojans and Achilles and Agamemnon. With interwoven themes of love, brotherhood, and honor the story still holds up thousands of years later. My only gripe with it is its abrupt ending, which left me a bit unsatisfied.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War

starlesssky72's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Slavery, Violence, and War

tourmaline1703's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Overall, I did enjoy this story, and I will accredit that to the translator. As a lover of the Classical world, it's obvious I read the Iliad, following my reading of the Odyssey and Metamorphoses last year (both in translation). Whilst this has not overtaken Metamorphoses as my favourite of the epics, it was still great.
The translation was witty and funny which helped balance the gritty violence of the war ongoing in the poem. Of course there are sectios which are just lists of names, but in this story, I needed the reminders of who was who because there was such a large amount of characters. I loved the dialoue in this, the humour was great and it captured the emotions of characters so well.
What confused me about this is it doesn't tell the story of the whole Trojan War.

It stops after Hector's death

which confused me because, whilst this is a crucial emotional moment, the war continued after this and the story feels unfinished. It does feel like an abrupt end which is confusing after you have read hundreds of pages of action. Despite it consisting almost entirely of battle scenes, it doesn't feel too repetitive and the different points of view help keep the story moving and interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism and Blood

Minor: Animal death, Rape, and Slavery

delphi_oracle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and War

Moderate: Misogyny and Slavery

pbeeandj's review against another edition

challenging sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Slavery, Violence, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

foxmulders's review against another edition

emotional informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

"if only i had will and heart to do it
i would carve up your flesh and eat it raw, 
for the abominations you have done me."

"my friend patroclus, whom i loved, is dead.
i loved him more than any other comrade.
i loved him like my head, my life, myself.
i love him, killed him."

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, and War

katee17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I fucking love the iliad which is my nerdiest opinon ever but I genuinely love it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Slavery

emmonsannae's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

There's not much to say about this that hasn’t already been said by someone smarter. I did enjoy seeing how this is the prototype for so many of our later stories in some form or another—war and battle, carrying the past, wrestling with fate and duty, being doomed by the narrative and fighting in spite of it. There is something uniquely enduring about these stories that has imprinted itself on our collective consciousness, in the way we instinctively recognize the heart of them even if we haven't read them before (which was a cool experience for me). I did love it. It wasn't an easy read, but I enjoyed reading it. I found Fagles' translation very readable and beautifully phrased.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, and War

Moderate: Sexual violence and Slavery