#peleid

[classical-aesthetics-blog]

CLASSICAL LIT MEME: (1/10) plays or books

The Iliad by Homer

Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians, hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished since that time when first there stood in division of conflict Atreus’ son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus. 

The Iliad (in ancient greek Ἰλιάς, Ilias) is the first epic poem of the author that is nowadays commonly known as Homer. Although we know very little about its author, the Iliad has been considered in the past millennias as the first greek poem of such a great importance.

The story takes place in Troy, during the last year of the ten-year war between Trojans and Greeks and develops around the figure of Achilles and its wrath, as the king Agamemnon has reclaimed his slave Briseis. This episode causes the refusal of the prince to fight again, until his closest friend and possibly lover Patroclus is killed in battle, a death that Achilles avenges by killing the murderer, the Trojan prince Hector. The poem, which is 24 books long, only deals with a small part of the entire war: in fact, many famous episodes, such as the death of Achilles and the trick of the Trojan horse, aren’t told. This probably hints to many other poems about this saga, which we can’t read anymore.