Reviews

The Iliad by Homer

Only show reviews with written explanations

hein's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Dumb story, regardless of translation (I switched between Emily Wilson and Caroline Alexander, which both had great notes.)

Content Warnings

isabellarobinson7's review against another edition

Go to review page

Rating: ?? stars

No I have never read the Iliad. Well, I’ve never read the Iliad in full, I have grabbed little snippets of it for papers in the past but have never actually read it cover to cover. But it is safe to say that the Trojan War is a rather large gap in my Greek mythological knowledge. (Probably because everyone dies at the end of it and so don't turn up in any other stories.) So after my interest was peaked by reading Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare’s An Iliad in May of this year (yes, I read An Iliad before I read the Iliad. Don't ask for my reasoning because I have none) I finally picked it up. I can't rate this thing because it's the frickin Iliad so I will just say some things instead.

First thing I will say is that I figured out a way to solve the Trojan War: Zygons and video games (it's super simple, I don't know why no one thought of it). Just make a Zygon turn into Helen, then Aphrodite can give “Helen” to Paris, and Menelaus can keep normal Helen. But then we have the problem of Agamemnon who just wants to fight stuff, so we can give him Call of Duty or something and that will occupy him. The end. Everyone is happy.

Now I will show you the little "dramatis personae" I had in my head while reading this. I wrote it down as I was getting through it so it is pretty much exactly how all the characters were in my head, so, enjoy:

Dramatis Personae
Greeks:
- Achilles: ankle guy; he zoom
- Ajax: super strong fighting dude; maker of bathroom cleaning products; probably says bro a lot
- Patrocolas: Achilles BFF; dies because he can't fight good
- Menelaus: gets his wife stolen and has a tantrum
- Agamemnon: brother of Menelaus; will attack in any direction you point him
- Helen: pretty lady everyone goes crazy over

Trojans:
- Hector: prince dude; big general guy; dies and gets dragged around the city for a bit
- Paris: less important prince dude; wife stealer
- Priam: king dude; doesn't really do much but cry for dead son
- Cassandra: spooky future lady; everyone thinks she's lying

Ok that's it. Review done.

ed_moore's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

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

4.25

The difference in The Illiad and The Odyssey completely surprised me, for whilst I didn’t enjoy the Odyssey I found the tale of the Trojan War to be so much more engaging and different in style to Homer’s other epic. I read the translation by Martin Hammond, which was unusually in prose whereas still written in poetic rhythm, which may have contributed to the different experience however. Whilst I was initially worried this would hinder my experience with The Iliad, I don’t believe it read too differently and I had an experience not too far from a poetic translation in my reading of Homer’s Epic. The Illiad recounts the days of the ten year long Trojan War, highlighting Achilleus as the protagonist figure for much focus is on his involvement, and ends just before his death at the hands of Paris and therefore before the Sack of Troy and Trojan Horse. This meant much emphasis was placed on the heroics of Achilleus, though Homer impressed me in his empathy for human life on both sides of the conflict amid the slaughter. Alike in Ancient Greek tradition where armies would fight over the bodies of fallen soldiers, Homer pays respect to each side in his descriptions of their strengths and lineage. There are frequent recurring descriptions, noting characters as ‘son of…’, ‘godlike’ and ‘master of the war cry’ to give the most frequent examples. Where there is an absence is in the female voices that shaped the Trojan War, the catalyst of it all Helen of Troy hardly gets a mention, and Briseis and Cassandra are rendered completely voiceless. Such absence leaves much of the motives for war untold, whereas in much of the poem focus is solely on battle and the honouring of heroics and fallen life. I cannot pretend that it wasn’t engaging throughout as a consequence of this, and whilst the Odyssey bored me a little, The Iliad did far from such and despite knowing the entire story beforehand it had me gripped.