• Title: The Illiad
• Author: Homer
• Genre/Subject: Greek classical literature
• Publisher: Chicago Classics
• Publication Date: Antiquity
• Start date: 3/4/2021
• Finish date: 3/13/2021

Review:

An eye opener for me, as like most people I assumed it was about the Siege of Troy. It’s not, or more accurately, it’s about one particular event in the Siege of Troy, near the end of the 10 years.

Two things made this much easier to read.

1. An excellent preface, which explained some of the reasons behind the characters’ motivations.
2. A chart listing the characters and the Gods so when they refer to the son of Tydeus, you can look it up quickly as to who that refers to.

You can’t rush through this. Took me 10 days to properly absorb and digest the whole epic. It’s an extraordinary book, and very important to understand it when it is constantly referred to in other classics.