"The Iliad": Summary

Hello again. Here we go. This is my first summary. Time to condense 306 pages into the cool stuff. We'll see.

First off, I just realized that I failed to reveal what started the Trojan War in my last post. But this is just as a good a place as any.

We find ourselves looking at the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, Achilles' parents. There's some commotion at the front door. Eris (aka Discord) is making a fuss about being kept out. She leaves after heaving a golden apple into the room. The apple has the words "To the Fairest" inscribed on it. Hera, Athena and Aphrodite quarrel over it. Each thinks herself to be the fairest.

To solve this little debate, they go to Alexandros (remember him?). He can't decide either. So they bribe him. Athena offers wisdom and warcraft. Hera offers political power and control of Asia. But Aphrodite offers him a beautiful women, Helen. What's a horndog to do? He picks Aphrodite. She gives him Helen. And the other two are angered to no end.

And that is how thinking with the wrong head brings down a nation. It also explains why Hera and Athena seemed so hateful towards Troy throughout the book. Now we know. And that means we can move on.

I'll begin by giving it two thumbs up. Very nice book. Long winded at times, but still very good. It had just about everything. No happy ending though. But at least we didn't have to see Troy get massacred. That's something. Unless you rooted for the Greeks.

This seems as if it's a far cry from the books I usually read. Everything was so different. I liked the way that people conversed. Definitely hard to wrap my head around at first. Some of that probably comes from it originally being a poem. Not the poetry that I know and love.

Really loved the honor that they frequently gave to each other. It paints a different picture of what I've heard life was like in those days. Seems more likeable than the descriptions I've heard.

I wonder how feminists feel about this book? Probably won't make even make their bottom five books. You know.....with all the taking women as slaves. But the women didn't seem to mind too much. Or maybe Homer just didn't appropriately voice their torment. They did appear to be having an alright time. No horrible screams of mistreatment here. Let us take it, at least, as the culture of another time when women were just happy to be taken care. Not wholly self-sufficient. But apparently that's a no no in modern culture. Let's change subject quickly before I'm labeled a sexist pig or something. *Oink *Oink. Dammit!

Achilles was definitely the center of this story. Everything did, in fact, revolve around him. The Trojans didn't even come out from behind their walls as long as he was still out there. If Agamemnon didn't insult Achilles, the Trojans would've never been vulnerable later on. Because they would've never been out so far from their city if he had been out there.

No really fantastic insights. Zeus was interesting. He seemed very nonchalant. He threw some prideful words and threats around, but never did too much.

I don't know if I would've read this book outside of this desire to read all the Great Books. That can probably be said for all of them though. Take Aquinas for example. I love the idea of the Summa, but probably wouldn't get around to reading it ever. This blog gives me a driving force. For some odd reason. So I'm very glad that I'm doing it. I hoped that everyone is having fun. If you're on Twitter, give me a shout out. I'm @mrakestraw777. Hope to hear from you soon. Feel free to give me some tips to make this all more enjoyable. It should get better by the fifth volume at least. On to "The Odyssey" for now. Be back soon. I promise. :-)