Review by Edward Tanguay April 28, 1996

The biggest surprise I had while reading the Iliad was observing how the Gods acted! Their behavior, their relationship to each other, and their relationship with men contrasts decidedly with that of Christian theology--imagine Jesus or the Holy Ghost pouting or complaining or being physically injured and whining back up to heaven! The Greek gods also play a surprisingly larger role in the lives of men yet they they are pleasantly aloof to it all. They fight against men and seem to want to affect their destinies but in the end it just seems like a pleasant game to them. In fact, it's the Gods who seem irresponsible and the humans who are the responsible ones who have to develop their character. And there are so many Gods and their histories are so interrelated that it is difficult to get them straight. No wonder Paul's Christianity caught on in Greece--one God was just easier to remember!

Reading the Iliad is as gory as an evening in front of the TV. There's enough violence to score high ratings on prime time even today. There must be 30-40 descriptions in the Iliad of how a spear enters into the body of its victim and how over the victim's eyes came "gloomy death and forceful fate." Here's my favorite one:

And Idomeneus wounded Erymas on the mouth with the pitiless bronze, and the spear of bronze went clean through below, beneath the brain, and shattered his white bones, and his teeth were shaken out, and both his eyes were filled with blood, and he blew blood up through mouth and nostrils as he gaped, and the black cloud of death covered him about.

There are some further awesome images of war, here of battalions charging over a hill:

Even as when a goatherd from a place of outlook seeth a cloud coming across the deep before the blast of the west wind; and to him being afar it seemeth ever blacker, even as pitch, as it goeth along the deep, and bringeth a great whirlwind, and he shudderteth to see it and driveth his flock beneath a cave; even in such wise moved the serried battalions of young men, the fosterlings of Zeus by the side of the Aiante into furious war, battalions dark of line, bristling with shields and spears.

. . . and of the frenzied fighting in the heat of battle:

. . . and where his side was left uncovered of his buckler as he bowed him down, there smote he him with bronze-tipped spear-shaft and unstrung his limbs. So his life departed from him, and over his corpse the task of Trojans and Achaians grew hot; like wolves leapt they one at another, and man lashed at man.

I liked the constant reference to "the flowing-haired Achaians!" I don't know why. I also enjoyed the description of the peaceful Trojan camp at night waiting for the battle of the next day:

But these with high hopes sate them all night along the highways of the battle, and their watchfires burned in multitude. Even as when in heaven the stars about the bright moon shine clear to see, when the air is windless, and all the peaks appear and the tall headlands and glades, and from heaven breaketh open the infinite air, and all stars are seen, and the shepherd's heart is glad; even in like multitude between the ships and the streams of Xanthos appeared the watchfires that the Trojans kindled in front of Ilios. A thousand fires burned in the plain and by the side of each sate fifty in the gleam of blazing fire. And the horses champed white barley and spelt, and standing by their chariots waied for the throned Dawn.

I liked the parting scene between Hector, his wife, and his boy. It was like a little human-interest story in the middle of a newspaper of dry politics. It reminded me of that famous good-bye letter by a Union officer in the Civil War, Sullivan Ballou, to his wife Sarah saying that if he should die in battle, he would always be with her. He died in battle and never saw her again. Just like Hector.

Achilles was a real ass, playing out two childhood extremes (sulking and unruliness) until the end when he finds human compassion again. He learns that there are no absolutes and learns to live like a responsible adult instead of like a child.

Teukros was my favorite character simply because he seemed to be a skilled sure-shot who played a low-key role, like Robin Hood. (I wonder if there's a link between the two.) That's something that is fun about Homer and other ancient Greek authors is they were copied so often throughout the ages that you can find the kernels of many stories in their works.

I liked that there was not only war but personal struggles, although there could have been a little bit more personal struggles and less war. I suppose Homer and the bards who used to tell this story needed to include a good dose of violence to keep the audience interested, just like today. But war in the Iliad also serves the purpose of a vehicle of the men to define their characters. Although we don't get any peaceful, everyday life in the Iliad to compare this theory to, it seems that men were defined by how they acted in fighting and war.

I liked the spy chapter as it at least had some adventure in it. Many of the other chapters almost put you to sleep as one warrior stabs another whereupon the both warriors lineages of ancestors are listed. After awhile the names just started to swim around in my head. I wonder if the original audience of this poem knew every name and liked to hear who was fighting. Homer's battle scenes seem like they are in slow-motion because he interrupts sword thrusts and battle blows to tell you who the ancestors were of the person whose head is now rolling into the throng!

I read the prose version and had the feeling that this would have been better in poetic form. It was a bit dry as prose text--seems too much like a newspaper report.

It was nice to finally read this much-referenced text. Another plus to having read the Iliad and other ancient texts is that you can recognize many more scenes in paintings when in the museum!

Edward Tanguay

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