The Iliad

Background

Tales as old as time… The Iliad, also known as the “Song of Ilium”, is an epic poem traditionally attributed to Homer in the 8th century BC. However, all of it is debatable. What isn’t debatable is it tells the story of the Trojan War, the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, the climatic fight between Achilles and Hector, and all the Greed gods causing issues.

The Iliad
The Iliad

My Thoughts

My first thought was the translation I had was hilarious in terms of the wording. “Bite the dust,” “hurly- burly,” and other such gems were fun to come across in the Trojan setting. There were several Roman crossovers as well, “Juno” rather than “Hera” and so on. The biggest stars of this book was really Zeus and the rest of the gods. Everything was blamed on them and they were in every detail. They were constantly fighting and picked sides in the conflict.

Recommendation

It was pretty underwhelming to read but so important to Western culture that it is worth the time.