The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer's IliadFrom the Preface:This book is addressed mainly to non-specialist readers who do not know Greek and who read, study, or teach the Iliad in translation; it also is meant for classical scholars whose professional specialization has prevented them from keeping abreast of recent work on Homer. It is grounded in technical scholarship, to which it constantly referes and is intended to contribute, and I hope that even Homeric specialists will find ideas and interpretations to interest them. I have tried to present clearly what seem to me the most valuable results of modern research and criticism of the Iliad while setting forth my own views. My goal has been to interpret the poem as much as possible on its own mythological, religious, ethical, and artistic terms. The topics and problems I focus on are those that have arisen most often and most insistently when I have thought the poem, in translation and in the original, as I have done every year since 1968. This book is a literary study of the Iliad. I have not discussed historical, archaeologoical, or even linguistic questions except where they are directly relevant to literary interpretation. Throughout I have emphasized what is thematically, ethically, and artistically distinctive in the Iliad in contrast to the conventions of the poetic tradition of which it is an end product. |
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Achaians action Agamemnon Aithiopis Ajax Andromache anger Aphrodite Apollo aristeia armor Athene audience battle biē Book 18 Book 24 Book 9 burial Chapter chariot Chthonic comrade contrast dead death of Achilles death of Hektor death of Patroklos destruction Diomedes divine Eëtion enemy epic Epic Cycle epithet express fall of Troy father fighting formulaic style gifts goddess gods Greek army Greeks and Trojans Hektor Hektor's corpse Helen Hephaistos Hera Herakles hero cult heroic heroism honor and glory horses human Iliad and Odyssey Ilias immortal Kakridis killed lament Lykaon Menelaos mēnis metrical moira mortal mother motifs mythological Nagy Odyssey Olympian oral poetry Paris Parry Patroklos Peleus philotēs Phoinix phrase poem poem's poet poetic tradition Poseidon Poulydamas Priam refers sack Sarpedon says scenes Schadewaldt scholars shield ships similes Simoeisios Skamandros social sorrow spear speech story themes Thetis tion traditional mythology tragic values warriors words wrath Zeus