The Iliad by Homer

I did it!! I listened to 14 1/2 hours of audio to hear the whole thing!! I can't say that I understood the entire thing, but I think I got the main jist. The biggest surprise I encountered was that the story of the Trojan horse is not included in the Iliad. Apparently we don't have all the writings, but it is refered to in the Odyssey. The Iliad also was not written originally, it was sung by a bard and the people would gather for a couple days to listen to it. Maybe someday I will be able to read it in the original Greek because I'm sure it sounds great in Greek. The story is excellent although there are a ton of fighting scenes, that made it reminiscent of The Red Badge of Courage, but hey, war is not pretty and I'm just reading about it, I'm not actually there so I think it is only fair I try to understand the ugliness of it so I can appreciate that I don't have to fight and so that I know what is actually involved before I give support to any war. I better be sure the war is really just and necessary, because war is terrible and I don't like it.

O.K. here is a quick summary of the story: At a wedding feast, Eris who was not invited throws in a golden apple with the inscription: to the fairest, three of the goddesses in attendance want the apple and Zues makes Paris a mortal decide who gets the apple. Each of the goddesses promise him a reward, he picks Aphrodite because she can make the most beautiful woman in the world fall in love with him. That woman is Helen, the only problem is that she is already married to Menelaus, King of Sparta, so when she runs away with Paris to Troy, Menelaus declares war on Troy and all his allies come to his aid. None of this is in the Iliad, the Iliad starts around the end of the war and deals with that year to the time of the deaths of Hektor, the hero of Troy and Achilles the hero of the Achaens which are all the other Greeks.

So Achilles refuses to help the Acheans anymore because Menelaus dishonored him. Hektor is the main leader of the Trojans and does an excellent job defending his city and causes great havoc among the Acheans so that Achilles decides to send his friend Patroclus to fight and help the Acheans. He is killed by Hektor, but the Acheans save his body and bring it back to give him a proper funeral. This infuriates Achilles against Hektor and he decides to fight and eventually kills Hektor, but shows him no mercy when he pleads that his body be taken back to his family. Achilles drags it through the street. Hektor's father recovers the body with the help of some of the gods and the Trojans mourn his death. That is where the Iliad ends. Achilles is killed later.

The contrast between Achilles and Hektor is striking. Achilles is selfish and revengeful. Hektor is fighting for his city. There is a sweet part where he parts with his wife and baby son. It is very tender and you can see that he doesn't thirst for blood and he really loves his wife and son, but knows he must fulfill his duty even though he may die.

There are many good points I gleaned from this book. No wonder it is still around and has passed the test of time. I highly recommend it. I'm tired now so that's all for now.

Here is a point I was going to work in nicely but oh well:
I think we are too far removed from actual fighting in this day and age. Back then, they faced their opponents and killed each other head on, now we push a button and a bomb will be released that can kill thousands without us ever personally knowing or seeing our victims. I think it makes us more likely to kill when the enemy has no face. These Greeks saw and respected each other. They would stop for various reasons and talk to each other, then when it was time to fight again, they would kill each other the next minute. It was very open. That is a big difference from today. An ironic point given in this book is how glorified the war seems to be, and everybody wants the glory of performing well in the war and they look forward to the spoils, but in the end it takes about 10 years to sack Troy and in that time so many people on both sides are dead I think it shows how awful war really is.