Great stuff if you're an ancient Greek

I have to say first I don't much care for the Iliad. All the really juicy stuff about the Trojan War, like how it started with the kidnapping of Helen by Paris who whisked her away to Troy and how it ended with that great trick of a wooden horse—none that is in Homer's epic poem.

Instead he plunks us into the tenth year of the Greek and Trojan conflict where we spend the entire story, subjected to continual militaristic bombast. All the way we can enjoy such exciting details as the long listing of every Greek ship and every notable Greek leader who sets out for Troy. It was probably rousing stuff for the ancient Greeks but, as they say, "it killed the ancient Greeks and now it's killing me".

To be fair, there is some juicy non-war material in the Iliad too. Like the spat between the Greeks (Achaeans, actually—from the Achaean, or Mycenaean, civilization that later developed into Greece) Achilles and Agamemnon that started with the latter general "dishonouring" a priest's daughter. The conspiring of the rather petty Olympian gods in the affairs of humans, usually against the Trojans but often against each other. (Homer practically invented the personalities of the Greek gods from Zeus on down, with which we have become so familiar—many of us from watching Xena, no doubt.) The day-long duel between the Greek Ajax and the Trojan Hector. The killing of Patroclus by Hector. The killing of Hector by Achilles.... Okay, most of it is about fighting.

The theme of the Iliad has been said to be that war, particularly among the Aegean people, is terrible, bloody and pointless. In which case the Iliad might fall into the same category as such horrific anti-war novels of modern times as All Quiet on the Western Front and Catch-22. But I can't help but feel this is a latter-day misinterpretation. Homer is involving his readers (or listeners rather) in the struggles of the characters in the epic poem not to denounce war but to tell what was to them a fascinating story. He was inspiring great fellow feeling among the scattered communities of the Greek world, uniting them with feelings of a common heritage, including bloodshed for national and personal honour.

Plus there are just too many characters and gods vying to be the protagonists of the Iliad, unlike the Odyssey in which we get to invest our sympathy in one great literary character. If we have to settle on one character here though, it's got to be Achilles. We can read the Iliad as a tragedy centred on this flawed hero whose pride gets the better of him in dealing with his fellow Greeks (his petulant withdrawal from the fighting until he gets everything his way) and whose thirst for revenge gets the better of him in dealing with the enemy (his pursuit of Hector although it's pretty certain Hector's death will lead to his own). Then it makes some kind of sense as a tragedy.

To really get the Iliad, it helps to know the mythical history leading up to where this poem begins, you have to recognize the great names thrown around, and you have to try to imagine what it must have felt like to the Greeks at the time.

It's still worth reading though, even without that background knowledge, since so many of our cultural references are still based on the Homeric tales. But you'll get so much more out of it if either (a) you are an ancient Greek or (b) you get a good translation with notes to explain everything. (Check out the commentary on Iliad translations.)

But, the sequel, the Odyssey—now there's a tale I can get into.

— Eric

© Copyright 2003 Eric McMillan. All rights reserved.