The Odyssey

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There's a reason that the Iliad had remained a best seller for nearly three-thousand years. Namely, it is a fun read (or listen.) This is my second journey through the book - the first time involved listening to an audiobook version - and I was surprised by all that I had missed the first time through, namely the comedy bits involving Zeus and Hera, Aeneas's substantial involvement, and the graphic “slasher film” elements. I was surprised to find that Homer seemed to be staking out some part of all genres that we 21st-century moderns would expect to find on television in his epic.

If you haven't read the Iliad, it begins ten years into the siege, spans about thirty days of the war, and ends long before you have the Trojan horse or the fall of the city. Despite its compressed time span, it covers thousands of lines of poetry that should amaze us when we think that someone memorized and orally recited all this in the granular detail of the life details of scores of subsidiary characters who walk on the stage, are identified by name, share their life stories, and are slaughtered with an arrow through the spleen or a sword cut removing tongues or a spear strike through the back of the head, knocking eyes to the ground.

The story starts with the rage of Achilles as Agamemnon takes away his war prize - Briseis - to compensate for the loss of his own war prize - Chriseis - the refusal to return to her father, a priest of Apollo, has provoked the wrath of Apollo. From that point, Achilles sulks and plots with his mother Thetis to take Greek fortunes so low that they will come begging for his return to war. There is, of course, the unintended side-effect of Hector killing Patroclus, which returns Achilles to the fight and results in the almost human scene of Achilles and Priam, King of Troy/father of Hector, sharing a moment of grief together.

You can see how the ancients could milk the depth of the Iliad for insight. While the characters are mostly Bronze Age warriors caught up in honor/glory/face-saving, there are moments when a more civilized ethose may be breaking out. Thus, we have two passages that I found most effect. The first is when Achilles spurns Hector's offer to treat the body of the defeated warrior in their duel with respect. Achilles answers:

“Hector, stop!
You unforgivable, you...don't talk to me of pacts.
There are no binding oaths between men and lions -
wolves and lambs can enjoy no meeting of the minds-
they are all bent on hating each other to the death.”

Later, Priam comes to Achilles with an offer of a ransom for the return of Hector's body:

“Revere the gods, Achilles! Pity me in my own right,
remember your own father! I deserve more pity...
I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before -
I put my lips to the hands of the man who killed my son.

Those words stirred within Achilles a deep desire
to grief for his own father. Taking the old man's hands
he gently moved him back. And overpowered by memory
both men gave way to grief. Priam wept freely
for man-killing Hector, throbbing, crouching
before Achilles' feet as Achilles wept himself,
now for his father, now for Patroclus once again,
and their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house.”

So, Achilles goes from someone who cannot recognize the enemy as human to someone who can share a moment of grief, perhaps.

I read this as part of the Online Great Books program. I found the structure and teleconference-style seminars to be quite helpful.

I would also recommend Fagles' translation. As you can see from the above, Fagles communicates the text in clear and vividly accessible prose.

This book is part of the heritage of Western Civilization. It would be a shame for you to miss out on it during your short course on this earth.