Book review
What to say? Where to start?
In the last 2500 years, so much has been said about this epic poem. Well, I’ll start with that. The last 2500 years… (roughly). 2500.! If we gathered every person who has ever read (or heard ) this tale on the last days of the Trojan war, we could probably fill the world.
When I first heard of this ancient poem, I was an adult already. I mean–I knew about Greek mythology, and like most people, had a vague knowledge of the heroes in the siege of Troy. The names Helen, Achilles, and Paris were familiar. But that was it. I never went to university. Never even went to college. My reading level was good, maybe a little above average, but I was no scholar (still am not).
A few years ago, I became interested in Alexander the Great. Soon, that interest turned into an obsession (as most of my interests do) and I read and watched everything I could on him. When I found out that he carried this Homer book with him all through his military career, I wondered who was this Homer guy and what was the Iliad exactly?
I remember checking the book out and then reading the first few lines–the poem begins with Achilles’s stubborn anger–and thinking this was WAY above my reading level. The names. My God, the names. Who were these people. Diomede, Enee, Paris/Alexander, Menelas, Agamemnon, Ulysses, Priam, Hector, Nestor, Breseis, Idomene, Ajax 1 and Ajax 2, Andromaque, Hecube, Athena/Pallas, Ares, Hermes, Hera, Iris, Themis? And they kept changing names likes in a Russian saga! Why was Homer giving me a list of ships and why did he keep comparing people to animals and why did everyone pause before battle to explain their family history?
On my first read, I barely could follow the action. Who were the Greeks? Who were the Trojan people? Where was the Trojan horse?
And yet… I kept on reading. The beauty of some lines would snatch my breath away and I’d pause and read the line once more and slowly, very slowly, Homer’s rhythm, his vision, his subtle sense of humor (the Gods are completely and hilariously reckless), but mostly, his passion for humanity grew on me. This wasn’t just about tough ancient warriors who sat around drinking honeyed wine before going into savage bloody battles (oh, and they are bloody. Homer does not spare a drop of blood), these were men with secrets in their hearts. Men who each treasured their life and measured it against the Gods.
After I’d finished my first read, I remember being a little haunted by Achilles and his special friend (oh yes, lover) Patrocles. Damn. Patrocles is the sexiest hero EVER. His sacrifice, courage and death is the pinnacle of the poem. Quiet and loyal, tending to the wounded soldiers, but above all, watching over Achilles’s troubled soul, I couldn’t resist the pull of this particular duo. After all, hadn’t Alexander and Hephaistion believed they were the reincarnation of the myth?
What else could I read on these heroes?
Hm, let’s see…
That’s when I discovered that pretty much all of western civilization had been influenced one way or another by this tale. And I fell down into the well.
Sophocles. Aeschylus. Euripides. Greek Tragedy! I read them all!
Then, after a year of immersing myself into these works, I tried the Iliad again. And I understood it better. I could enjoy the story a little better, without getting too lost.
But now I needed to know the genealogy of the Gods. Had to understand. So I was ready for Hesiod who basically invented the Gods’s birth charts. And then… on to Ovid and his great work
on all of the Gods’s metamorphoses. Now, I knew who all of the players were. Human and immortal. From the Greek tragedies, I’d gotten the backstory of Agamemnon and the horrible sacrifice he’d made of his daughter Iphigenia and what followed for his family, down to his son Orestes, and a whole bunch of details on other major characters. To sate my need to see a little man on man action between Achilles and Patrocles, I read Miller’s Song of Achilles, which was fucking exquisite.
This year, I started my reading challenge with my third read of the Iliad. And guess what?
It was amazing. I caught so many more details. So many more little touching scenes, like when Hector, the super butch hero, spends a quiet moment with his wife Andromaque and their little son. Or how much more interesting the funeral games were then I’d first thought. The humor and lessons Homer squeezed into that whole scene.
So why am I sharing all this with you? Because every time a friend or colleague would find out I was reading Homer, they all pretty much had the same reaction. Awe or confusion. And no matter how hard I tried to tell them that it wasn’t as serious or impressive as it seemed, they still wouldn’t come near the book.
I am an ordinary person with not much schooling at all and I am telling you, the curious reader who has been debating about trying this… YES YOU CAN.
It opened so many doors for me. Connected me with a wondrous world I knew existed, but could never enter. This poem was the beginning of a journey into the history of western civilization. Because it was indeed, the beginning. From Rome to Russian Tsars, French Imperials to Venetian painters, Thoreau to Video games–Greek Myths and Homer’s poems have influenced pretty much everything us westerners know. Think about it, even the planets in our solar system our named after Greek Gods (their latin versions).
Yes, reading Homer is intimidating, but it’s also doable.
So do it!
I dare you. 🙂
- Goodreads rating – 3.89
- REVIEW – Mel Bossa