About this title: One of the greatest epics in Western literature, "The Iliad" recounts the story of the Trojan wars. This timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves to its tragic conclusion. In his introduction, Bernard Knox observes that although the violence of the Iliad is ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780140275360ISBN:0140275363
Description: Acceptable. Moderate underlining, highlighting, and note marks, All readable text; Clean cover; Tight Binding Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 1998-11-01
ISBN-13:9780140275360ISBN:0140275363
Description: Very Good. Very good condition. Clean cover and pages. Corners show a little wear. Spine has a crease. Delivery confirmation included. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Date Published: 1998-10-01
ISBN-13:9780140275360ISBN:0140275363
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780140275360. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780140275360ISBN:0140275363
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Highlighting/underlining. Text in English, Greek, Ancient (to 1453). Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 704 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780140275360ISBN:0140275363
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Text in English, Greek, Ancient (to 1453). Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 704 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"The Iliad was written down probably in the 6th century BC by a Greek poet (or poets) known to us only as 'Homer', though it had certainly been an oral tradition for a long time before that.
The poem's subject matter is the war between the Greeks and Trojans, set off by the elopement to Helen of Troy - daughter of the Greek King Menelaus of Sparta - with Paris, son of the Trojan King Priam.
The Greek army, under the command of Menelaus's brother Agamemnon, sets off for Troy to correct the insult to Greek honour and also, of course, to sack the greatest city in that part of the world at the time. One can't help thinking that avenging the elopement was a mere pretext to wage a war that had been brewing for some time, borne from plain old jealousy.
Meanwhile, on Mount Olympus, the gods and goddesses take sides for the grand game. All that's missing is the popcorn, but you can imagine them knocking back the ambrosia and getting as involved as English football fans watching their team playing in Germany.
The initial confrontation of the forces resolves itself fairly quickly into a series of individual duels between the heroes on each side. The overall action, however, concerns itself with the half-divine (on his mother's side) Greek hero Achilles and the Trojan hero Hector, son of King Priam. Although these two actually meet only towards the end of the poem, their polarity forms an invisible force field that arches over the smaller duels, and the tension between them is felt throughout the poem.
Everyone knows what it's all leading up to, and the question they're always asking themselves is when Achilles is going to stop sulking off-stage (over an insult by Agamemnon at the beginning) and make a decisive appearance on the Greek side. Actually, it's only when his best friend Patroclus is killed whilst wearing Achilles' borrowed armour that Achilles finally takes the field.
About the skeleton of the heroic duels is constructed the flesh that makes the Iliad live down the ages, imbued as it is with the common passions, strengths and weaknesses of real men and women, and it is full of marvellous psychological insights that we can all relate to.
In the end, of course, Troy falls and there is the usual rape and pillage by the victors, though this takes place beyond the ending point of the Iliad, the action of which had started ten years after the beginning of the siege. The poem is thus mounted like a jewel in the broader context of the siege, and the fall of Troy itself becomes the launch pad for the epic tale of Aeneas, who escapes the burning city to eventually found Rome, in Virgil's later poem.
The Iliad, with the Odyssey, was memorised by Greeks of the time as Muslims today memorise the Koran. They constituted their moral code and the heroes within them were their life models.
The tragedy of the Iliad is on the grand scale. The gods preside over a field of death, on which men are locked into a pitiless struggle, their individual actions dictated by rules of honour and heroism. Achilles himself is the ultimate tragic hero and man of destiny, fully aware that his life is destined to be cut short in its prime, and motivated only by his own inflexible code of conduct, in which his personal wishes are paramount. Nowadays he would be locked up as a psychopath, and yet there is an overwhelming pathos about him that transcends the carnage he metes out and raises him in our eyes to the point that we accord a respect to him that we would not accord to the gods, those inhuman creatures who dole out death and destruction from their Mount Olympus for the pure pleasure of it, to relieve their immortal boredom."
"I had never read this epic poem, so I pulled up my sleeves and dove in.
The book was good, but like a history book. It was neat to learn about Homer's take on the war, the kings, those events linked to the gods. But, just about everyone came off as a jerk. Paris was a jerk for starting the war. Helen was a jerk for leading Paris on. Hector was a jerk for posturing. Agamemnon was a jerk for needing to be the big boss. Menelaus was a jerk for letting his brother start a war over something that he probably should have handled one-on-one with King Priam. Achilles was a jerk for letting his ego rule his actions (granted, Agamemnon took Achilles girl). Patrolocus is a jerk for dying.
Odysseus is not that much of a jerk. He seems to be the voice of reason. Maybe that's why he got his own book? Still, his lesser jerkiness just makes him a pragmatic jerk.
The verse was simple, but the tome was dense. I enjoyed it, but the same way I enjoy Brussels sprouts: slowly, with salt and butter."
"Homeric Poems are indeed one of the most important bases for 'Western Culture'. The Iliad is a major piece of work and I think that its main attractive comes from that fact that this is a poem which comes from an archaich tradition that was well preserved generations after generations from thousand of years.
The Iliad poem is just fasciniating and there is hardly a better war poem-story than this one. If you're thinking about reading it you should also try 'The Odyssey' ! This last one, in my opinion, is far more interesting and exciting :) The Odyssey is the best poem from the 'Homeric tradition' and it also deals with the 'Troyan War'.
One good advice for you guys who doesn't know the poems : in fact you'll be disappointed if you're looking for some famous episodes of the war against Troy in Iliad (such as the fake horse episode). They do not appear in Homer's Iliad but in 'The Odyssey' just like everything we know about the end of the war comes basically from Odysseus (Ulisses) mouth."
"This is my second time reading the Iliad, and I loved it. I came up with a routine. A few times a week, I'd walk with my wife to our favorite local, independent coffee shop (about a mile away), order a small, soy mocha, loop the Sigur Ros album () on my iPod, read one book and then walk home. It worked great. I feel as if ancient Greeks couldn't have appreciated it more. I've already started reading the Odyssey with the same routine (except with a different Sigur Ros album)."
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