Iliad

by Homer and A. Lang
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Published by: Hayes Barton Press(i)
eBook Publish Date: December 22, 2008
Print ISBN: 1905530056
Filesize: 402.33 KB
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Overview

Homer's epic poem Iliad tells the story of the final year of the ten-year siege of Troy. The events center on the great hero Achilles, who angrily withdraws from the war when his slave woman, given as a prize to Achilles, is taken by his commander-in-chief, Agamemnon. Consequently, the Greeks suffer many defeats and have lost heart when Patroclus, Achilles' cousin, is killed by the Trojan Prince Hector. Achilles returns with his fierce warriors to avenge his cousin's death. He kills Hector and defiles his body. Hector's father, King Priam, ransoms his son's body to honor and bury him. The poem ends with Hector's funeral.

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Bio of Homer

Homer was probably born around 725BC on the Coast of Asia Minor, now the coast of Turkey, but then really a part of Greece. Homer was the first Greek writer whose work survives. He was one of a long line of bards, or poets, who worked in the oral tradition. Homer and other bards of the time could recite, or chant, long epic poems. Both works attributed to Homer - the Iliad and the Odyssey - are over ten thousand lines long in the original. Homer must have had an amazing memory but was helped by the formulaic poetry style of the time. In the Iliad Homer sang of death and glory, of a few days in the struggle between the Greeks and the Trojans. Mortal men played out their fate under the gaze of the gods. The Odyssey is the original collection of tall traveller's tales. Odysseus, on his way home from the Trojan War, encounters all kinds of marvels from one-eyed giants to witches and beautiful temptresses. His adventures are many and memorable before he gets back to Ithaca and his faithful wife Penelope. We can never be certain that both these stories belonged to Homer. In fact 'Homer' may not be a real name but a kind of nickname meaning perhaps 'the hostage' or 'the blind one'. Whatever the truth of their origin, the two stories, developed around three thousand years ago, may well still be read in three thousand years' time.