Scan barcode
A review by parallax_kimchi
The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer
4.0
The Iliad ★★★★
It was at times very repetitive and tiresome, and some chapters are daunting in their length, so it was a slog at times to get through. But also it was so emotional and effective in its lamentations that it teared me up and really nailed the sorrow and tradegy of war.
The Odyssey ★★★
I expected to enjoy this more than the Iliad, due to it having more of contemporary idea of a story, but it still ended up being repetitive in aspects (there must be about 3 dozen feasts in it. You can only hear about how bones are wrapped in fat and offered to Zeus so many times), and pretty simple in its main story. It's most exciting and epic portions are in the middle and the ending feels more like a small squabble than a concluding battle.
Unlike the Iliad, which is sorrowful at every fallen hero, it revels in murder and the bad things its hero does. I still definitely enjoyed reading it, but it is somehow more dated than the story it follows.
So yes, I enjoyed them both, and am happy that I read them, but they are definitely, and understandably, dated. They were written over 2 millenia ago, when ethics and morals were certainly different to what they are now. The almost negative representation of war in the Iliad does feel suprisingly contemporary, and so I look back on that more positively than the pseudo-sequel.
It was at times very repetitive and tiresome, and some chapters are daunting in their length, so it was a slog at times to get through. But also it was so emotional and effective in its lamentations that it teared me up and really nailed the sorrow and tradegy of war.
The Odyssey ★★★
I expected to enjoy this more than the Iliad, due to it having more of contemporary idea of a story, but it still ended up being repetitive in aspects (there must be about 3 dozen feasts in it. You can only hear about how bones are wrapped in fat and offered to Zeus so many times), and pretty simple in its main story. It's most exciting and epic portions are in the middle and the ending feels more like a small squabble than a concluding battle.
Unlike the Iliad, which is sorrowful at every fallen hero, it revels in murder and the bad things its hero does. I still definitely enjoyed reading it, but it is somehow more dated than the story it follows.
So yes, I enjoyed them both, and am happy that I read them, but they are definitely, and understandably, dated. They were written over 2 millenia ago, when ethics and morals were certainly different to what they are now. The almost negative representation of war in the Iliad does feel suprisingly contemporary, and so I look back on that more positively than the pseudo-sequel.