Reviews - The Iliad | The StoryGraph

4.88k reviews for:

The Iliad

Homer

3.8 AVERAGE

captain_bravo's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous informative slow-paced

Fucking hated the part where it was just a chapter of listing down every single high-profile person in the Greek Army. Still, this great book holds up to this day compared to other epic poetry.

yirken's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

geraldmonpere's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous inspiring sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

sam_sklh's review against another edition

3.0

slow-paced

In anticipation of reading the Odyssey, I opted to start first by exploring Odysseus’ character prior to his journey home. Unsurprisingly (as I really didn’t know much about The Iliad to begin with), this wasn’t really a story about Odysseus at all - taking center stage was Achilles and Patroclus.

Fine by me as I felt this provided the opportunity to read the source material for the retellings I’ve loved to read (Clytemnestra, The Song of Achilles, even Circe to a degree). It was extremely interesting reading about the aforementioned characters, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Hector and Priam, etc.

The best parts of this book were the beginning and the end (in essence, anything except for the actual war). Unfortunately, everything in the middle consisted of the gory details of the deaths of thousands of characters you don’t really know (or care about).

That said, the politics, the love stories and the laments were what made this book enjoyable to me.

astro_alia's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

My experience with Greek lit until this point has been stuffy translations of various plays - epic and interesting for sure, but usually dry, with most of the action happening offstage, translated into formal English that gives an element of detachment. Because of this, I was absolutely not prepared for how vivid and exciting the Iliad is. I was deeply drawn in, gripped by a story I already knew the ending of. I understand why the Iliad has captivated us for literal millennia. The imagery, the stakes, the unflinching violence and the deep tragedy - it was stunning. Wilson’s translation is incredibly readable, balancing lyricism and a more casual voice that makes this book both accessible and compelling. I loved the translator’s notes - the context she provides really lets you put yourself in the place of an Ancient Greek, hearing this performed aloud (read a couple passages out loud yourself - it’s a great experience!). An epic story with a great translation to match - I can’t wait to read her Odyssey translation too.