The Iliad: Or, The Poem of Force

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Pendle Hill, 1956 - Fiction - 39 pages

Due to a lack of biographical evidence regarding the identity of Homer it has been suggested that the two great works attributed to him, the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" may, in fact, be the work of multiple authors passed down through a long oral tradition. While scholarship on the subject will likely never definitely prove one way or the other, it is now generally accepted that these two great epic poems are the work of a single Greek author, Homer, who lived sometime during the 9th century BC. Set during a few weeks in the final year of the Trojan War, "The Iliad" is a classical epic poem concerning a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. While encompassing just a brief period of the Trojan War the poem relates events leading up to and following the few weeks that encompass the setting of the poem giving the reader a comprehensive perspective of the Trojan War. Part romanticized historical narrative, part mythological epic, the "Iliad" is widely recognized as one of the most important works from classical antiquity. Along with the "Odyssey", it would establish Homer as one the most influential authors to ever have lived. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper, follows the prose translation of Samuel Butler, and includes an introduction by H. L. Havell.


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Contents

Section 1
27
Section 2
38
Section 3

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About the author (1956)

Born in Paris, Weil came from a highly intellectual family. After a brilliant academic career at school and university, she taught philosophy interspersed with periods of hard manual labor on farms and in factories. Throughout her life she combined sophisticated and scholarly interests with an extreme moral intensity and identification with the poor and oppressed. A twentieth-century Pascal (see Vol. 4), this ardently spiritual woman was a social thinker, sensitive to the crises of modern humanity. Jewish by birth, Christian by vocation, and Greek by aesthetic choice, Weil has influenced religious thinking profoundly in the years since her death. "Humility is the root of love," she said as she questioned traditional theologians and held that the apostles had badly interpreted Christ's teaching. Christianity was, she thought, to blame for the heresy of progress. During World War II, Weil starved herself to death, refusing to eat while victims of the war still suffered.

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