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The Iliad
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The Iliad
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The Iliad
Audiobook16 hours

The Iliad

Written by Homer

Narrated by Anton Lesser

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Perhaps the greatest poem of the Western world, The Iliad tells the story of fifty critical days towards the end of the Trojan war. Achilles has quarrelled with Agamemnon and sulks in his tent, while Hector brings his Trojans to the brink of victory; but fate will have the last word. Anton Lesser, one of Britain’s finest audiobook stars, brings this great classic to life in the new and imaginative translation by Ian Johnston.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 1, 2006
ISBN9789629546588
Author

Homer

Although recognized as one of the greatest ancient Greek poets, the life and figure of Homer remains shrouded in mystery. Credited with the authorship of the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, Homer, if he existed, is believed to have lived during the ninth century BC, and has been identified variously as a Babylonian, an Ithacan, or an Ionian. Regardless of his citizenship, Homer’s poems and speeches played a key role in shaping Greek culture, and Homeric studies remains one of the oldest continuous areas of scholarship, reaching from antiquity through to modern times.

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Reviews for The Iliad

Rating: 4.046757875618441 out of 5 stars
4/5

5,336 ratings128 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Translated into English Prose by Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf and Ernest Myers
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    At long last! The Illiad by Homer DIfficult to rate a literary epic. However, the entire book takes place in the 10th and last year of the Trojan War. Achilles’ wrath at Agamemnon for taking his war prize, the maiden Briseis, forms the main subject of this book. It seemed as if there were a lot of introductions to characters we never hear from again. The word refulgent was used dozen of times. All in all I'm glad I slogged my way through this. The novelized from of Song of Achilles was more satisfactory to me than the Illiad. I read the translation by Caroline Alexander because that's the one the library had. 3 1/2 stars 604 pages
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Stanley Lombardo's translation of Homer's Iliad is wonderful and very readable, better evoking the grittiness and rage of warfare than most other translations. I think of it as the "Vietnam War version of the Iliad." However, there are also parts where Homer's humor shines through, particularly when the Greek warriors are ribbing each other.Though the translation is excellent, I only got through about half of the book. The plot moves quite slowly, and the long lists of characters and backstory become tiresome. Also, there also is a lot of conversation between the various warriors, which illuminates Greek values (such as what makes for heroism or cowardice) but does not advance the storyline. Parts can get repetitious. I preferred the Odyssey, which I read in the Robert Fagles translation.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Important in the history of literature and classical Greek thought.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Better than the movie! Once you get the rhythm it sucks you in like a time machine. Amazing.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A king offends his strongest ally in the middle of a war.Good. It's very repetitive, but its interesting.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Read it, love it!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    {Review of E.V. Rieu's prose translation, Penguin Classics} Reading a prose version of The Iliad is like having your learned friend read the poem silently to himself and occasionally pausing to explain to you what's going on. This is a very thorough translation of the action, but you won't grasp why Homer is called a master bard or find his genius. For all the translator's efforts this reads almost like a comic book version minus the pictures. That makes it simple to breeze through and there's no question you'll know the whole story by the end, but you'll not have been swept up by it as you would if you've any ear for poetry. Since I don't, I judge little harm was done in my case. Like the Bible and Shakespeare this tale of men and gods permeates Western culture, but if you've no familiarity with it at all then you might want some context. The Iliad only covers two months of the Greeks' decade-long seige of Troy, and is neither the beginning nor the end of that event. The warriors are larger-than-life, there are powerful interferring gods supporting either side, violent combat is graphically described, and every death gets its eulogy. I always sympathize with the Trojans, which is remarkable in light of the Greek author. A number of the differently spelled names in this edition threw me off. Hera becomes "Here" (leading to many initial misreads of a sentence where I mistook the noun), and Athena is similarly rendered "Athene". Where I expected a Greek named Ajax, here he is "Aias". Prose emphasizes (introduces?) flaws, at least by modern standards: characters bursting into speeches at the most inopportune times, curious repetitions/echoes, lengthy descriptive asides. The battles are mostly an unlikely sequence of staged set pieces that don't transmit the chaos and bewilderment of an actual field of battle. At the conclusion there is a miniature Olympics I wasn't expecting that has some farcical moments. The story is still epic and entertaining no matter how it's told. It's something you'll want familiarity with if you're a student of Western literature, but read a poetic version if you can.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    So I don't much like flying. Like really, I do not like flying. And I had to fly to the US for work. In which case the coping mechanism is tranquilisers and a book I have to concentrate on - it serves to distract me. Having read [The Odyssey] earlier in the year, I figured I'd go all classical and try [The Illiad] this time. It's one of those occasions when you know what's going to happen, this is all about how you arrive at the ending. It's quite intense, being set over a limited number of weeks towards the end of the 10 year siege of Troy. Despite the intervention of the gods, the entire thing is very human, with the whole gamut of emotions present, from the great and heroic to the petty. It's all very sad, and there's no sense of resolution at the end of the book, the war continues without seeming to have resolved anything, despite the bloodshed. I found the introductory notes interesting and informative and it was worth wading through them initially.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This version was quite the tome and I suffered from RSI just from holding the book. I have embarked upon the Great Books series as set out by Hutchins and Adler at the University of Chicago and this great tale is number 1. This is no small task but it is essential. Time and again I have seen movies about Achilles and the fall of Troy but there is something to be said about the various translations and notes that direct the reader to a long history of debates, arguments, and disagreements over Homer (or whether it was Homers), and then the translations that incorporate the Latin amendments (such as Samuel Butler's), and then how the "folk tradition" has twisted and turned this nation-building epic to suit different times. The movies have it that Hector was simply out-classed, not that he ran three laps around the walls of Troy trying to escape Achilles, not that the gods intervened time and again, even helping to kill other soldiers and so on. I like the introduction's idea of Hector as a complete man, husband, father, prince, warrior; whereas Achilles is the unbalanced warrior, hell-bent on death and glory. I have now started on The Odyssey and I did not know that the Trojan horse was not of the first book, I had suspicions but I did not know that Ulysses was the Latin name, and so on. Even the unpacking of these issues helps with my reading of Plato and Aristotle. I felt I had arrived at a place where reading more of the classic scholars made no sense unless I had at least a working grasp of Homer. But the manly ideal that has been bastardised by Hollywood and others has set me thinking deeply. Honour didn't mean masculine aggression at all costs, or that any man could do anything, or that class could not hold one back and so on. In the translation (rather than bastardisation) of the original, an entirely different view of masculinity emerges. These people were all fallible, all helped or thwarted by fortune, the gods played a major role in the plot (religion is all but excluded from the Brad Pitt version of the story), and Paris, a snivelling coward, is not helped out by Hector. Hector hates him! So much to unlearn from reading one of the oldest "western" texts. I shirk at this title - much like the re-writing of Greek ideas about masculinity, all of a sudden the Eastern Europeans get a guernsey in the Great Race Race because they were so brilliant. But it really does set me at ease to now see the portrayals of the Greek ideal and be able to see it for what it was meant to be. This does not help me to feel more secure in the world, but it does help me to see the world differently, and, maybe, more accurately.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    And so the Trojans buried Hector breaker of horses.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A cornerstone of Western literature that remains hugely influential. Read it for that reason, and because the poetry is still enjoyable enough to be read aloud with panache. The story itself is mostly a catalog of slaughter with very little human drama, although the interaction between the gods and the human characters is fascinating and tragic.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As much as I love the Greeks in general, the Illiad is never as good a read as the Odyssey mostly because it's 80% horrible violent fighting and despair at a neverending war and then 20% interesting characters, speeches, and god/mortal interaction. I'll admit, I always end up doing a fair bit of skimming. The emotional resonance and epic descriptions are still as strong as the Odyssey, it just doesn't have the same fluid narrative. And then there's the fact that hearing how hundreds of people die in excruciating detail over and over again might be a good lesson against glorifying war, but it's just depressing. Personally, Achilles is just less likable a character. The really enjoyable part of this book is the relations between the gods and the mortals and the question of the inevitability of Fate.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the original great war story. The translation here is phenomenal. Keeping the epic verse is key to getting a good read of this and here it is beautiful and informative.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    With a plethora of themes to focus on, two struck and stuck with me throughout this piece: 1) Truly, the Victors of the war wrote this account. Almost never was a smile far from my face as I found Homer bestowing glory unto the Greeks, and shame unto the Trojans. The Greeks always seemed to retreat in better thought haste, while the Trojans retreated cowardly, to flee the might of the Greeks. [i.e Ajax retreating from Hector momentarily versus any retreat of Hector's] 2) Fate robs men of freedom. After the work, I read the preface, where Sheila Murnaghan makes an interesting argument: "It is important to recognize... that divine intervention is almost always in harmony with the preexisting qualities and instincts of of those human characters. Divine favor may make possible displays of heroic excellence, but it is also a response to that excellence; in an unbreakable circular logic, men are heroic because the gods help them, and the gods help them because they are heroic." Introduction, xxvi. Whenever a character seemed to become more personal to me, I was disturbed that he knew of his fate, yet marched headlong into it. I understand Ms. Murnaghan's position, and it is a valiant attempt to import freedom into the work, but i feel it is flawed. This era looked to the heavens for reasons why an event occurred, and although we still do this today [i.e. God was with me when...], my culture recognizes and celebrates autonomy.As similar as we still are to our brethren of old, as shown in how the recording of history is slanted in favor of the triumphant, so too have we evolved in our perceptions of self worth and self recognition.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The Iliad takes place in the ninth year of the Trojan War. Achilles avenges the death of his loyal companion Patroclus by killing Hector, son of King Priam.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    At long last! The Illiad by Homer DIfficult to rate a literary epic. However, the entire book takes place in the 10th and last year of the Trojan War. Achilles’ wrath at Agamemnon for taking his war prize, the maiden Briseis, forms the main subject of this book. It seemed as if there were a lot of introductions to characters we never hear from again. The word refulgent was used dozen of times. All in all I'm glad I slogged my way through this. The novelized from of Song of Achilles was more satisfactory to me than the Illiad. I read the translation by Caroline Alexander because that's the one the library had. 3 1/2 stars 604 pages
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Media and language have shifted innumerably before, and will in the future, I imagine... the smart phone is just a stone skip of time. Nevertheless, I find the idea of reading ancient greek literature on a kindle app on a smart phone really amusing. Homer basically accomplished what I imagine one of his goals was - to immortalize the heroics and feats of the warriors and document the destruction of Troy for all time. Yet for all that, the Iliad reads like a game of football with the line of scrimmage moving back and forth and the Greeks and Trojans alternating between offense and defense. At first the 'well greaved Greeks' were winning… but now Hector 'of the glancing helm' has turned the tide and most of the Greek heroes are wounded and stuck in sick bay…. and then the tide turns again at the whim of Zeus. There is quite a lot of 'this one killed that one, and another one bit the bloody dust'. There are more creative ways to kill someone with a spear than I ever imagined. Some of the details are actually fairly gory. What's confusing, I find, is that at the moment of each death Homer tells the life story of the slain, or at least the vital information such as where they were from, their lineage, and who their wife was. There's a lot of familiar names and it's interesting to see them all in one place here since they are somewhat more ingrained in my head from elsewhere. Like Laertes (thank you Shakespeare) or Hercules (thank you Kevin Sorbo) or Saturn (thank you GM). There are the other random lesser gods or immortals like Sleep (no thanks to you Starbucks) or Aurora (the borealis is on the bucket list).Homer barely mentions the scene or uses descriptions at all unless it directly relates to the battle. Apparently the only such things worth recording was when the battle was at the Greek ships or Trojan city wall or if the gods were yammering away on Mount Olympus. Descriptions are fairly short and uniform and there is a lot of repetition. I heard on RadioLab that Homer did not use any instance of the color blue and some thought he may have been color blind. I did find, however, two instances of blue - one as "dark blue" and one as "azure" -- though never "blue" by itself. RadioLab gets a bunch of details wrong frequently anyway, which is really neither here nor there. One thing I found interesting is the idea and extent of how involved the Greek gods/immortals were in the lives and fates of the mortals. To the point where there are teams of gods aligned loosely for or against the Trojans. This was completely excised in the movie Troy, which I watched as I neared finishing reading this. I had no interest in seeing the movie when it came out but, figured why not. I was actually impressed with how much Hollywood got right in Troy - but of course my expectations were low to begin, thinking it would be a mixed-up and mushy story. I think the biggest things they told differently was how they treated women characters (nicer than Homer) especially Briseus. Also, Patroclus' relationship with Achilles was changed, and as I mentioned, there was no depiction of the gods. Plotwise, the movie included the Trojan horse episode, which is not actually in The Iliad (it's related in The Aenid, by Virgil). Apparently my memory from elementary school did not serve me well because I was expecting to read about the Trojan Horse and didn't believe what I was reading in front of me when the book ended without it! Even went downloading a few other versions and snooping around online to verify. Just goes to show me that my preconceived notions are not always right! And that things get muddied up when stories and retellings merge. Nevertheless, a lot of the detail and direct actions and even dialogue of the characters in the movie did come straight out of the book, so someone clearly was familiar with it, which was a pleasant surprise.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    First, I was cheated, since the only thing I know about the Trojan war is that it was won by the Greeks using the "Trojan Horse" and that Achilles was killed by being shot by Paris through the ankle. Neither of these episodes are in the Iliad! I was surprised that it was just a snapshot (about a month) of the ten-year long war. It seemed to end somewhat abruptly, but I read somewhere that the Iliad is focusing on Achilles, and his fall (and the struggle of the Greeks) through his pride. If I remember right, this is a common Greek theme, the hero’s tragic flaw that ruins him. Through this lens, the timespan of the Iliad makes more sense though I wish it would have at least continued to the death of Achilles for some closure.Another common Greek theme is that of our fate being fixed, which is evident for many characters throughout the book. Sometimes it may take the form of Zeus forbidding the gods to interfere so that the predestined fate is not tampered with, and sometimes it is much more literal, where the gods do interfere, creating a fog or whisking someone off the battlefield. I always knew that the gods quarreled along with mortals in the Iliad, but I didn’t realize that they would be quite so vindictive—or also quite so physically involved, getting out on the battlefield and getting wounded!I read the translation by Pope, which I thought was very good. I can’t verify its authenticity, but Pope did justice to the Iliad in his word choice. I noticed another review mentioned that the word “refulgent” was used over and over in the Caroline Alexander translation—it’s used continuously in Pope’s! Pope did mention in his introduction that the Iliad can be repetitive at times, and that he chose to keep the repetition in for authenticity’s sake. I think I like that better. I guess I am the kind of person that, if I had to choose, I would prefer more authentic to easier-to-read. Some of the most tedious parts for me were the listing of all the characters, where they came from and who their parents were. All to promptly kill them off in the next paragraph. I admit I did some skimming over the lists of people. Some of the best parts, however, were the myriad ways that Homer came up with to describe someone dying and their body giving up the ghost. He was most creative. Some even made me laugh out loud. What I don’t want to admit is that the most valuable thing about reading the Iliad is that know I understand the references that other authors make to the Iliad. Just started reading Anna Karenina and they references specific scenes from the Iliad -twice- in the introduction. Now I know what they are talking about! And I can (sort of) understand what they mean when they are comparing Tolstoy to Homer.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Dit lijkt een vrij saai boek met vooral talloze, bloederige strijdtaferelen en de erbij horende redevoeringen. Een overdaad aan herhalingen dus. Het werk vormt een mooie eenheid en is veel minder complex van structuur dan bijvoorbeeld de Odyssee. Bovendien is de moraal van het verhaal nogal simplistisch: ieder ondergaat zijn lot, maar de grote helden zorgen ervoor dat ze dat met roem en eer doen.Aan de andere kant steken er tal van verfrissende elementen in:1. de po?tische kracht die uitgaat van de taal (de epitheta), en vooral van sommige scenes: afscheid van Hektor en Andromache, het verdriet van Achilles om zijn vriend Patroklos,...2. de open en stoutmoedige confrontatie tussen de meerderen en hun ondergeschikten, vooral in de controverse rond koning Agamemnoon: herhaaldelijk wordt die door verschillende helden voor vuile vis uitgemaakt en verbaal vernederd. 3. Bovenal getuigt het beeld dat van de godenwereld wordt opgehangen in de eerste plaats van een heel dynamisch en modern aandoend mensbeeld: de goden zijn als mensen met humeuren en luimen, met een hi?rarchie die regelmatig opzij wordt gezet maar toch wordt gerespecteerd als het er op aankomt, met een moraal die wel enkele formele regels volgt maar die tegelijk te pas en te onpas links wordt gelaten. Kortom: het archetype van de vrijheid?Nog enkele andere elementen over het wereld- en mensbeeld:1. De dood is onvermijdelijk en door het lot bepaald (zelfs de goden moeten er zich naar schikken), maar toch kan enige vorm van onsterfelijkheid worden nagestreefd door roemrijke daden te stellen. Dat belet niet dat de Onderwereld voor ieder een oord van verschrikkelijke ellende is. 2. Vrouwen zijn volstrekt ondergeschikt en hun waarde wordt zelfs voor een stuk uitgedrukt in runderen, tenzij voor de echtgenotes of moeders van de helden cfr Andromache (Hektor heeft een "hoofse" relatie tot haar). Uitzondering hierop vormen de vrouwelijke goden die als het erop aankomt wel ondergeschikt zijn, maar geen enkele gelegenheid onbenut laten om hun eigen weg te gaan (Hera, Athene, Afrodite). 3. Het standpunt van de verteller is heel objectivistisch: hij kiest globaal geen partij; wel worden in het verhaal sommige figuren in een minder daglicht gesteld (aan Griekse kant vooral de broers Agamemnoon en Menelaos, aan Trojaanse Paris). 4. De typisch griekse lichaamcultuur is hier al aanwezig: bij de persoonsbeschrijvingen worden vooral de fysieke kenmerken onderstreept; heel veel belang wordt gehecht aan het conserveren van het lichaam na de dood (en omgekeerd voor vijanden aan het zo wreed mogelijk verminken).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Quite the epic adventure. I love The Iliad, but it sure is long and tedious. All those battle scenes get old. And all that wailing in grief.But despite all the repetition, it really is good. Lots of bickering gods, vengeful heroes, and, well, wailing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I listened to the audio version of this and I will have to listen to it again, probably more than once. It's a rambling story, but a great window onto another time and place, and perhaps more importantly, a pre-modern, oral mode of storytelling which I could stand some more of.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It's the Iliad; it is what you make of it. If you compare it to modern story telling, I think a lot of readers will find it lacking, especially with the constant battle scenes. We're used to getting petty drama in our petty dramas, tragic deaths in our tragedies, gory action in our gory action thrillers. This oral tradition has it all mashed up together.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read The Iliad Penguin Classic edition. This will contain the whole story, as it is good for me to write it out as revision material for my classics exam - if you want just the review part, skip to the paragraph starting with: "In review..."

    The theme of this epic poem is 'the wrath of Achilleus', a great Greek warrior who has his new prize-girl taken from him by military commander, Agamemnon during the siege of Troy. Achilleus is livid with Agamemnon and refuses to fight for the Greek forces, allowing the Trojans to win many battles against them.

    However, Achilleus' coup does not last long, as his dearest friend Patroklos is killed in battle by the great Trojan warrior, Hektor, whilst wearing Achilleus' armour to inspire his troops and strike fear into the Trojans. Hektor is a family man, and the favourite son of Priam, King of Troy. He is loved throughout Troy, and poses a serious threat for the Greeks in battle - his only match in a fight is Achilleus.

    Achilleus is distraught about Patroklos' death and grieves for him and feels suicidal. After a visit from his mother, a goddess named Thetis, he resolves to make up with Agamemnon and join the fighting once again in order to exact revenge on Hektor.

    Hektor and Achilleus eventually meet in one-on-one combat, and Hektor is confident that he will either win the battle and secure the Trojan victory over the Achaian forces, or he will die a glorious death and be remembered for all eternity. What Hektor does not realise is the true extent of the wrath of Achilleus. Achilleus strikes Hektor with a spear with the help (trickery) of the gods, and whilst Hektor is still breathing, informs him that his corpse will be treated without a shred of respect. From there, Achilleus finishes him off and drags him in circles around the walls of Troy three times before bringing him back to the Greek camp and throwing him in the dust. Achilleus wakes every morning to drag Hektor's body around the tomb of his friend Patroklos as the sun is rising - but the gods prevent Hektor's corpse from coming to any harm.

    It is worth mentioning that Priam eventually receives word from the gods that he must go to the Greek camp to beg for the body of his son from Achilleus. Priam does so, and manages to win the affection of Achilleus, yet he is still dangerous and warns Priam not to anger him further or he will slay him on the spot. Achilleus hands over Hektor's body, and the book ends with an account of Hektor's funeral.

    IN REVIEW, The Iliad was a good book to read when learning to write like a professional writer. Homer uses his traditional formulae and tricks of the trade; remember that this was a recited poem and wasn't put down on paper until centuries after Homer's death - despite this, The Iliad is detailed and descriptive, but is often repetitive, as is the feature of a classic epic poem. In retrospect, if you are looking for an account of the fall of Troy, coupled with an Odyssean adventure, read Virgil's Aeneid which tells the story of Aeneas and the founding of Rome. Otherwise, if you are happy with the stale scenery of war, and don't mind the common features of an epic poem, The Iliad is enjoyable.

    I gave this three stars to reflect the fact that I liked it, but preferred The Odyssey and The Aeneid.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this on the tail of reading The Song of Achilles by Emmy Miller--I wanted to see if I could detect the homoerotic subtext between Achilles and Patroclus myself. The answer to that is definitely Yes, but now I'm curious what other translations are like. This one--by Stanley Lombardo--is pretty jocular, which suits a poem about battle, I guess. So I wonder how other translators handle it.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    What exactly was the point? War sucks? Yeah, we already knew that. Really depressing, unrelenting testosterone-ridden crap.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Confrontation upon confrontation (with some love scenes thrown in) - between man and god, between man and man. A rather incestuous story about what seems to obssess us even to this day. I love Lattimore!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What a great translation.....
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I suppose that when something is called a "classic" it's meant to mean something that is inherently interesting, to "everyone". However, in dealing with the Illiad, I'm not really sure how it could appeal to anyone not interested in war. It begins with a very sordid little episode, and continues on and on and on with things that are either unspeakably cruel, or at best strange and difficult, or both. The Catalog of Ships in Book Two of the Illiad in particular stands out as something of truly bureaucratic, census-taking, skill. (Mighty Steve, who was a mighty man, a mighty man indeed, came from Keyport, whose motto is "Pearl of the Bayshore", and also from various surrounding towns like Hazlet, Union Beach and Matawan-Aberdeen, went with him came his seven sons Adam Brian Carl Dan Edmund Fergus and Hans and his uncle Schmitty. They were all warriors. They excelled at decapitation, and other skilled modes of combat. They came with thirty ships.....Mighty John, who was also a mighty man, a mighty, mighty, mighty man, who came from Metuchen, where you can find bookstores, and his various sons and male cousins came from places like Edison, famous for its diversity, and East Brunswick and New Brunswick, where British people used to live, and Keasbey, where there are warehouses. They were all warriors. In fact, they were bloodthirsty piratical skumbags bent on pillaging young women from burning cities. They were good at sharpening axes with their teeth. They came on twenty-five ships, big ones. And then there was Mighty Fred, oh what a Mighty Man he was.....) Sometimes, when they call sometimes a "classic", they mean-- "couldn't get away with it today". ................And then, dawg gone it, somebody else got slain too. (And then Steve slew Nick, son of Boris the Russian, who had come from that country. Mighty Steve speared him right in the face. Nick then fell down, dead. Oh, he's gone.).................And, worst of all, it can provide only a partial and distorted view of the old pagan religion, since, no matter who is doing this or that, Homer's Illiad makes the whole religion the house of Mars, the madness of Mars.... "Juno" can be portrayed as saying this or that, but nothing of her own matrimonial nature survives the bloodshed and the gore; it is really all Jove, Jove and Mars-- war and politics; it's all their game, and everyone else is just there to play as a pawn for this or that. ...........................You could actually get pretty angry if you took seriously some of the things that these guys say. ("Little girl! I'll kill you!") I certainly wouldn't call it great-hearted. ...................................And, if this isn't clear already, I don't understand the *wonder* of it, just because it's (happily!) removed from current circumstances. "You're just a little girl, but I'm not a little pussy like you! I'll smash your skull!"God, I wonder what he was *really* trying to say. *rolls eyes*.......................................Considering that Homer was trying to deify and glorify war, that most sordid of human episodes, I've come to be a little surprised, of what people say about him. (7/10)