Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Iliad by Homer

53 reviews

elizabethjane's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Death, Violence, War, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny

caelfind's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, War, and Death

Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Sexual assault

tourmaline1703's review

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, War, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism and Blood

Minor: Slavery, Animal death, and Rape

mollyrook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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

This was not a book I ever really expected to read, but Emily Wilson's translation was so engaging and accessible that I surprisingly really enjoyed it. I love Wilson's whole premise that an English translation of Ancient Greek should be as readable to modern readers as the original would have been for ancient Greeks. 

This is nothing to do with Wilson's translation, but I was really surprised that the end came without Achilles' death, considering that that was the explicitly stated conclusion to his character arc. It certainly doesn't function as anything like a modern story arc; unlike the Odyssey, there is basically no conclusion to the story, except for Hector's funeral. The war isn't over, Achilles isn't dead, and we as readers have no sense of how that will occur.

Very fun to wrap it up on the last day of the year, and now on to Wilson's Odyssey!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and War

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: War, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Slavery and Misogyny

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

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, War, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Kidnapping, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Sexism, Rape, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Trafficking, and Sexual assault

gabriella_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense 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? Yes

3.75

The scene with Andromache and her son had me fighting for my life. Also who doesn’t love some Patroclus and Achilles love?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Murder, War, Violence, Pregnancy, Grief, Sexism, Abandonment, Sexual violence, Misogyny, and Death

elunia16's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Genocide, Grief, and Misogyny

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

Moderate: Sexual violence and Slavery