Homer's The Iliad

When I'm not watching movies or playing poker, the other hobby I fill my time with is reading. I always have a book by my side and any downtime is filled inside a book. Since I constantly have my nose inside some pages, I decided to start keeping track of what and how many books I read.

It just so happened that I started my most recent story, Homer's epic poem The Iliad, on January 1 when our family left for our ski trip in New Mexico. I finished it this morning and will now pick up his next epic poem, The Odyssey.

I wanted to read The Odyssey prior to Christopher Nolan releasing his version of the story this summer. I hadn't planned to read it until closer to the July release date. However, my niece Lizzie lent me her copy of the book and I felt obligated to get it back to her as quickly as possible. So that led me to jumping into The Iliad first.

I remember studying these two poems in school. I don't recall if it was high school or college, where I did take a Greek mythology course at some point, but I don't think I've ever read them in their entirety. Here are some takeaways from Homer's first epic poem.

The Iliad is extremely violent. Because it is set during the tenth year of the Trojan seize you might think it obvious that a poem about war and warriors is going to be brutal, but Homer gives some detailed gore and death scenes throughout.

Despite the poem's central story being about the battle between the Achaeans and Trojans, I also found the subplots featuring the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus to be quite interesting as well. Seeing how these deathless beings interact with and have to outmaneuver one another depending on their loyalties between the two armies was fascinating.

It didn't occur to me that Achilles, who after Helen might be the most recognized character from this story, is sidelined for most of the action due to pride. I hadn't realized pride was as much of a theme in this story as was honor, war, or heroism.

I'm not sure if it is because I am 20 years older or due to the translation I bought, but I certainly could follow and understand The Iliad much easier than I remember doing so when I was in school. There were only a handful of times I wasn't quite sure of the action taking place. What actually surprised me the most was the parts where the action of battle dragged on for several pages lost my attention more quickly than I would have thought.

While I very much enjoyed The Iliad, I am looking forward to The Odyssey even more. Like I said before, I studied the poem in school and from what I remember about it I think I will enjoy the obstacles Odysseus finds himself having to conquer while making his way home. I remember there is a cyclops and the sirens at some point, and I think an archery contest near the end. Yet, other than that I don't really know what to expect.