Reviews with content warning for War - The Iliad

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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nosferatwo's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.5

This book made me laugh a lot there’s such funny things everyone says like they’ll just pause and monologue in battle and make such disrespectful jokes it’s super funny. Quite interesting read but sometimes it gets monotonous

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mollyrook's review against another edition

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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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delphi_oracle's review against another edition

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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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pbeeandj's review against another edition

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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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foxmulders's review against another edition

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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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hein's review against another edition

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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.)

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careinthelibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging sad slow-paced

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