The Iliad by Homer 

The book is The Iliad by Homer. It was originally written around the 8^th century BC. I read the Robert Fagles translation in the Penguin Deluxe Classics 1998 paperback edition.  I read it in September of 2023.  

“Iliad” is a word that means “a poem about lium” (ie. , Troy), and Homer’s great epic poem has been known as “The Iliad” ever since the Greek historian Herodotus so referred to it in the fifth century B.C.” (p3) 

I read this as my classic literature unit for my 2023 book round list. I also read it because I want to read the Aeneid by Virgil. I got the Penguin Deluxe Classics slip cover box set that includes The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid. This is the first of those books.  

The message I got from Homer is that rage can be extremely destructive to yourself and those around you. There is a lot of emphasis put on the rage of Achiles and how his grudge against Agamemnon caused many deaths he could’ve prevented. For most of the story Achiles pouts like a little bitch in his tent and refuses to fight.  

My main takeaway we shuold not hold petty grudges. It hurts more people than you know. Achiles could’ve saved a lot of his men if he entered the fight. But he wanted revenge for his bruised pride and it ended up killing his beloved Patroclus.  

Unfortunately this book made me think of the Brad Pitt movie Troy. That’s the only pop culture reference I have to these characters. Although I do think Eric Bana cast as Hector was a good choice.  

One part of the book I found really interesting was when Hermes is yelling at the gods for supporting Achiles and not Hector. Hector is brave and honorable. He fights for his family and country. Achiles acts like a petty child. Yet the gods favor him over Troy. I guess it makes sense because they’re pretty dishonorable as well. Hermes gets fed up and screams at them.  

“…But murderous Achilles–you gods, you choose to help Achilles. That man without a shred of decency in his heart …his temper can never bend and change-like some lion going his own barbaric way, giving in to his power, his brute force and wild pride, as down he swoops on the flocks of men to seize his savage feast. Achilles has lost all pity! No shame in the man, shame that does great harm or drives men on to good.” (p589) 

It got a little confusing with some of the lesser characters, knowing whose side they’re on. Technically they’re all Greek but the war is between the Trojans and the Argives and Achaeans(?)…I think.   

Homer effectively expressed the chaos of war. It’s unrelenting. “Breathing room in war is all too brief.” (p323) 

The tone was valiant and rageful and bloody. It’s clear the gods don’t give a crap about the humans. They’re support in the war is based on their own superficial feuds with each other.  

Hector is the hero to emulate. Achiles isn’t quite the bad guy in this story, but he’s just wrong. He does realize it in the end and comes back fighting like a badass.  

I’d recommend this book to any serious reader. It’s not exactly a page turner. It’s long and old. There are things that seem like cliches but they’re not because this story is so old, it’s where the cliches come from. Overall it was a joy to read and I do recommend it.  

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Notable Quotables 

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“Iliad” is a word that means “a poem about lium” (ie. , Troy), and Homer’s great epic poem has been known as “The Iliad” ever since the Greek historian Herodotus so referred to it in the fifth century B.c. (p3) 

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Out of his rich guarded chamber the god himself 

launched Aeneas now, driving courage into his heart and the captain took his place amidst his men. And how they thrilled to see him still alive, 

safe, unharmed and marching back to their lines, his soul ablaze for war, but his men asked him nothing. (p181) 

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You are the one hit hardest by the fighting, Hector, you more than all and all for me, whore that I am, and this blind mad Paris. Oh the two of us! Zeus planted a killing doom within us both, so even for generations still unborn 

we will live in song.” (p207) 

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And tall Hector nodded, his helmet flashing: “All this weighs on my mind too, dear woman. But I would die of shame to face the men of Troy and the Trojan women trailing their long robes 

if I would shrink from battle now, a coward. Nor does the spirit urge me on that way. I’ve learned it all too well. To stand up bravely, always to fight in the front ranks of Trojan soldiers, winning my father great glory, glory for myself. 

For in my heart and soul I also know this well: 

the day will come when sacred Troy must die, 

Priam must die and all his people with him, 

Priam who hurls the strong ash spear … (p210) 

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And someday one will say, one of the men to come, steering his oar-swept ship across the wine-dark sea, “There’s the mound of a man who died in the old days, one of the brave whom glorious Hector killed. So they will say, someday, and my fame will never die. (p216) 

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But now, Achilles, beat down your mounting fury! It’s wrong to have such an iron, ruthless heart. Even the gods themselves can bend and change, and theirs is the greater power, honor, strength. 

We do have Prayers, you know, Prayers for forgiveness, daughters of mighty Zeus . . . and they limp and halt, (p268) 

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But my heart still heaves with rage 

whenever I call to mind that arrogance of his 

how he mortified me, right in front of the Argives that son of Atreus treating me like some vagabond, like some outcast stripped of all my rights! (p273) 

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And your fathers filled your ears with marching orders. The old horseman Peleus urging his son Achilles, ‘Now always be the best, my boy, the bravest, and hold your head up high above the others.’ (p322) 

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Breathing room in war is all too brief. (p323) 

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So you could suffer the pains of wretched men? 

There is nothing alive more agonized than man 

of all that breathe and crawl across the earth. (p457) 

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Enough. Let bygones be bygones. Done is done. 

Despite my anguish I will beat it down, the fury mounting inside me, down by force. Now, by god, I call a halt to all my anger it’s wrong to keep on raging, heart inflamed forever. (p490) 

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You talk of food? I have no taste for food–what I really crave is slaughter and blood and the choking groans of men!” (p495) 

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the brilliant Achilles began to arm for battle . A sound of grinding came from the fighter’s teeth, his eyes blazed forth in searing points of fire, unbearable grief came surging through his heart and now, bursting with rage against the men of Troy, he donned Hephaestus’ gifts–magnificent armor the god of fire forged with all his labor. (p500) 

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his heart racing with slaughter, only his sword in hand, whirling in circles, slashing hideous groans breaking,…But soon as Achilles grew arm-weary from killing, twelve young Trojans he rounded up from the river, took them all alive as the blood-price for Patroclus’ death,…and back he whirled, insane to hack more flesh. (p521) 

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Lycaon’s glistening fat! Die, Trojans, die till I butcher all the way to sacred Troy run headlong on, I’ll hack you from behind! Nothing can save you now not even your silver-whirling, mighty-tiding river not for all the bulls you’ve slaughtered to it for years, the rearing stallions drowned alive in its eddies .. . die! even so-writhing in death till all you Trojans pay for Patroclus’ blood and the carnage of Achaeans killed by the racing ships when I was out of action!” (p524) 

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“Lie there with the dead! Punishing work, you see, to fight the sons of invincible Cronus’ son, 

even sprung from a river as you are! You 

you claimed your birth from a river’s broad stream? Well I can boast my birth from powerful Zeus himself! My father’s the man who rules the hordes of Myrmidons, Peleus, son of Aeacus, and Aeacus sprang from Zeus and as Zeus is stronger than rivers surging out to sea, so the breed of Zeus is stronger than any stream’s. (p526) 

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So now, better by far for me to stand up to Achilles, kill him, come home alive or die at his hands in glory out before the walls…Better to clash in battle, now, at once “see which fighter Zeus awards the glory!” (p545) 

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They kept on urging the sharp-eyed giant-killer Hermes to go and steal the body, a plan that pleased them all, but not Hera, Poseidon or the girl with blazing eyes. They clung to their deathless hate of sacred Troy. 

…Apollo rose and addressed the immortal powers: “Hard-hearted you are, you gods, you live for cruelty! Did Hector never burn in your honor thighs of oxen and flawless, full-grown goats? Now you cannot bring yourselves to save him even his corpse 

…But murderous Achilles–you gods, you choose to help Achilles. That man without a shred of decency in his heart …his temper can never bend and change-like some lion going his own barbaric way, giving in to his power, his brute force and wild pride, as down he swoops on the flocks of men to seize his savage feast. Achilles has lost all pity! No shame in the man, shame that does great harm or drives men on to good. (p589) 

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But Hector is mortal. He sucked a woman’s breast. Achilles sprang from a goddess one I reared myself: (p590) 

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So the immortals spun our lives that we, we wretched men live on to bear such torments–the gods live free of sorrows. (p605)