Reviews

The Iliad by Homer

imnotmillied's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

3.25

finally! finally I have read the iliad! really strange translation from 1966 (I plan to read a more updated version) which features some very strange turns of phrase and is super long winded (I think that is the nature of the iliad) but I enjoyed the story as usual, unfortunately it had that classic achilles and patroclus were just buddies thing going on but that is the nature of old academic translations...

d34nn3_29's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

unaturalnat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

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

4.0

julieabe89's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

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

3.0

This was an interesting story. It is difficult if you're not big on epic poetry as a lot of the language is flowery. I overall found it enjoyable.

hillarycopsey's review against another edition

5.0

I did not expect to like this one, much as I appreciated Emily Wilson's work and translation of The Odyssey. This is just a bunch of dudes fighting, right? But I found it incredibly moving, a still-relevant lamentation of mortality. I am so glad to have spent time with this.

chumblespuzz's review against another edition

5.0

this put me in shambles for a good week and made me make not one but two spotify playlists. i WILL read the fagles translation.

annebonnie's review against another edition

Found a better translation. 

rtcrook's review against another edition

5.0

Dang this book went hard. I did not expect to enjoy it, let alone be fully immersed in its poetry and depth. It helped a lot to listen to Stephen Fry’s book on Troy first as I didn’t know much about the plot or characters.

Will forever be haunted by the death descriptions, thanks Homer. There was one about teeth being uprooted by a spear thrust that was just… special.

Fitzgerald translation, audiobook narrated by Dan Stevens.

linaaaaaaaaaaaa's review against another edition

3.0

If you read this and still believe that Achilles is straight, then there is no cure in world that could help you

lilliangrey's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

This book is so unbelievably paramount to western literature that I fear my girlish vocabulary cannot not relay it's greatness. I wonder how literature might have developed had we not had access to the Homeric epics - and better yet, imagine how we might have developed had we accessed all of those which are now lost.
I see so many talking about this book as a pillar of masculinity (usually as instructed by a man), and a story of anger, but I percieve it as a broader image: something that relays the misfortunes of hubris and the importance of choice, and how both of those concepts are fundamentally stripped away when loss comes to gamble. We see Achilles choice of glory over longevitiy; Agamemnon's choice of honour over humility; Hector's choice of surrender over haste; Paris' choice of reputation over protection. And so much more. Every character is refined in a way that I could spend hours picking them apart to uncover the ways in which they shaped not only Greek and Roman culture, but subsequently our "western" culture as we know it today.