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dunnettreader 's review for:
The Iliad
by Homer
A classic that I thought I knew something about but had never read surprised me. First of all, this is a war story, perhaps the greatest, and it carries that mantle well. There is plenty of fighting, gore, and death. But even though it is primarily a war story, it is also a tale of men who have lost the thread of what they are fighting for and look for reasons to justify carrying on the war. Revenge, trickery, honor, and grief play a role in giving meaning and texture to the long battle sequences. The gods on Olympus are fickle patrons who periodically intervene to save their favorite mortals from death. A few characters take center stage--Achilles who is aggrieved because Agamemnon took a female war prize from him; Hector, the great hero of the Trojans; Great Ajax, who challenges Hector to combat; wise and tricky Odysseus; Priam, the aged king of Troy; and those contentious brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus.
This translation by Caroline Alexander is fresh and exciting, carrying the story with verve and also horror. I could imagine this being recited by a great bard, with the repetitious language that is typical of an oral classic. We get a lot of "Hector of the shimmering helm" and "Diomedes, son of Tydeus". But lying beneath all this is a sense that this war has become a moral disaster to all those involved. There is no good way out with honor.
As I said, I found a few surprises. First of all, no Trojan horse. That bit of fancy is mentioned in the Odyssey and the Aeneid, but not here. And Achilles, whose death is forecast several times in the poem, is still alive at the end. In fact, the war is still going on. It has taken only the briefest of pauses as King Priam goes to Achilles to collect the body of his dead son Hector.
I listened to the Audible version, which meant that I didn't have to worry about how to pronounce the Greek names. Dominic Keating, the narrator, gives an excellent performance. But at some point, I stopped concentrating on the details of the story and let it roll over me. The thud of spears and the clash of swords was like listening to a version of a classic Greek vase with the characters chasing each other round and round.
This translation by Caroline Alexander is fresh and exciting, carrying the story with verve and also horror. I could imagine this being recited by a great bard, with the repetitious language that is typical of an oral classic. We get a lot of "Hector of the shimmering helm" and "Diomedes, son of Tydeus". But lying beneath all this is a sense that this war has become a moral disaster to all those involved. There is no good way out with honor.
As I said, I found a few surprises. First of all, no Trojan horse. That bit of fancy is mentioned in the Odyssey and the Aeneid, but not here. And Achilles, whose death is forecast several times in the poem, is still alive at the end. In fact, the war is still going on. It has taken only the briefest of pauses as King Priam goes to Achilles to collect the body of his dead son Hector.
I listened to the Audible version, which meant that I didn't have to worry about how to pronounce the Greek names. Dominic Keating, the narrator, gives an excellent performance. But at some point, I stopped concentrating on the details of the story and let it roll over me. The thud of spears and the clash of swords was like listening to a version of a classic Greek vase with the characters chasing each other round and round.