My Goodreads Review of The Iliad by Homer

I wrote this after just feeling numb after reading this poem in January 2018. I get why this poem is celebrated, but I had so many thoughts concerning the hypocrisy of Western civilization and I was seeing red a-little.

The Iliad by Homer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have no proper introduction for this, lets just go. I had been torn on whether to read the translation by Alexander Pope or Robert Fagles, but Fagles won me out with lines like this:

"Rage - Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles."

I was kept engaged by beautifully placed lines like that. One of the advantages of listening to hip-hop is that a lot of rappers like to use hexameter (what Homer and Virgil used) over common meter. Oh, I will get back to the relationship between hip-hop and Homer in a moment.

My thoughts about the poem: It was decent. The introduction by Bernard Knox was very good, even if I disagreed with 4% of what he said. The main hero for me is Fagles, for making these guys way more appealing than they should have been. I was not a big fan of most of the Acheans, I only favored Odysseus and Nestor. Though I liked the Trojans more, it was just barely. Hector was the only sane man in this whole poem, Aeneas was Odysseus' equal (that's why he gets a sequel). Priam is a much better king than Agamemnon. My thoughts on Achilles are the same as Apollo in the last book (chapter/book 24 lines 46-65). My one compliment is that he earned his epithet of man-killer (as did Hector). I feel the meeting between Priam and Achilles was perfectly done. I was amused at the lax nature of this epic poem. During very crucial times in the actions we get a page long reminiscence to something that happened years ago.

When folks speak of this poem, they often speak with an awe of the "old Greek virtues" or they hand-wave many of morally hateful things to praise the parts of the poem they liked. I wasn't impressed because, growing-up in the DC-Maryland area in the 1990s, these virtues weren't as praise-worthy. I suspect that the majority of people who like Homer are not fans of gangster-rap--which is a shame, because you would get much better renditions of the things in this play and in Homeric meter. Having read this book I scoff at folks who think Achilles is nobler than Tupac. Achilles says:

“Come, Friend, you too must die. Why moan about it so?
Even Patroclus died, a far, far better man than you.
And look, you see how handsome and powerful I am?
The son of a great man, the mother who gave me life--
A deathless goddess. But even for me, I tell you,
Death and the strong force of fate are waiting.
There will come a dawn or sunset or high noon
When a man will take my life in battle too--
flinging a spear perhaps
Or whipping a deadly arrow off his bow.”

While Tupac Shakur says:

"The other day I thought I seen my homeboy Biggy
Sayin' shit don't stop, nigga, no pity
We all hoods and all we ever had was dreams
Money makin' motherfuckers plot scandalous schemes...
Man, ain't nobody promised me a thang
I been caught up in this game
Ever since I was a little motherfucker wantin' to hang
I can see 'em in my head – pow!
Memories of my nigga but he dead now
Lookin' back in my yearbook
All the years took half my peers, they're stretched for years
And if I die, will they all shed tears?" - Few men were as much doomed by fate as Tupac.

Some will scoff at my analyzes, but I couldn't help seeing the parallels. In my heart, I believe the only reason this poem is still talked about is because it is really old, which is fine, but I wonder why no one else is admitting this. Outside of Europe, we have other tales of old kingdoms going to war. In Asia, the big war epic is the Romance of Three Kingdoms or, more suitable for comparison, The Tale of the Heike. Like the Epic Cycle of Troy, "Heike" is about the complete destruction of the Heike Dynasty in Japan with the Battle of Dan no Ura and its aftermath being every bit as brutal as the Fall of Troy.

But I am getting off topic, I am gald to finally have read this and look forward to reading The Odyssey.

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