The Iliad

A productive trip to Abu Dhabi in terms of learning about NYUAD and finishing some books at night and on the treadmills.  Today while running, I finished The Iliad by Homer.  I listened to this classic battle story of heroes in Greek and Roman history narrated by Alfred Molina of Spiderman fame (also saw him in the lead on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof).  The story is a very long poem in ancient tradition. In these kind of reads I would imagine the translation is key, this one was fine.  The story takes place over the ten years of the Trojan War, or referred to as the “siege on Troy” – just a note here, Troy is my home town, so lots of correlation about its destruction since the 1960s (I guess that is the way most NY water town cities have declined over the years—enough on my Troy)…  There is a great deal of battle and history of the epic battles but the reader also gains knowledge on the gathering of warriors for the siege on Troy and the cause of the prolonged war battle. Then the epic narrative takes up events predicted for the future, such as Achilles' looming death and the destruction of Troy, so that when it reaches an end, the poem has told a more or less complete tale of the Trojan War. The book is broken into twenty-three chapters with a compilation of warriors, Trojan men and women, and of course the insertion of the Gods.  Lots of gore and vivid detail about the battles, and there are so many battles, not only those to the death, but also a few good ones on the playing field as well.  This is definitely an acquired read and sets the framework for so much of our own issues in the world today.  Having understood a story like The Iliad gives the student (and shouldn’t we all be students) a great perspective on the complexity of our world today from which is rooted from the actualities of Homer’s story of Troy.  While not a history buff, all of these names will come back to you from your ancient world history courses.  The writing (in this edition) is brilliantly done.  The language is vivid and draws you into the world of the various characters.