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Epic of the Earth: Reading Homer’s "Iliad" in the Fight for a Dying World
An urgent study of Homer’s Iliad, exposing the beginnings of the ecological disaster we now face and facilitating our understanding of its history
The roots of today’s environmental catastrophe run deep into humanity’s past. Through this unprecedented reading of Homer’s Iliad, the award-winning classicist Edith Hall examines how this foundational text both documents the environmental practices of the ancient Greeks and betrays an awareness of the dangers posed by the destruction of the natural landscape. Underlying Homer’s account of brutal military operations, alliances, and cataclysmic struggle is a palpable understanding that the direction in which humanity was headed could create a world that was uninhabitable.
Hall provides unparalleled insight into the ancient origins of climate change and argues that the Iliad exposes the deepest contradictions behind the environmental problems we have created. Indeed, it is possible that some of the violence done to the environment throughout history has been authorized, if not exacerbated, by the celebration of the exploitation of nature in Homer’s poem. Drawing compelling analogies to contemporary poetry, literature, and film, Hall demonstrates that the Iliad, as a priceless document of the mindset of early humans, can help us understand the long history of ecological degradation and inspire activism to rescue our planet from disaster.
The roots of today’s environmental catastrophe run deep into humanity’s past. Through this unprecedented reading of Homer’s Iliad, the award-winning classicist Edith Hall examines how this foundational text both documents the environmental practices of the ancient Greeks and betrays an awareness of the dangers posed by the destruction of the natural landscape. Underlying Homer’s account of brutal military operations, alliances, and cataclysmic struggle is a palpable understanding that the direction in which humanity was headed could create a world that was uninhabitable.
Hall provides unparalleled insight into the ancient origins of climate change and argues that the Iliad exposes the deepest contradictions behind the environmental problems we have created. Indeed, it is possible that some of the violence done to the environment throughout history has been authorized, if not exacerbated, by the celebration of the exploitation of nature in Homer’s poem. Drawing compelling analogies to contemporary poetry, literature, and film, Hall demonstrates that the Iliad, as a priceless document of the mindset of early humans, can help us understand the long history of ecological degradation and inspire activism to rescue our planet from disaster.
296 pages, Hardcover
Published March 18, 2025
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April 23, 2025In Book 21 of the Iliad Achilles has a violent confrontation with the nonhuman world. Overcome with wrath after the death of Patroclus, he sets about annihilating his Trojan enemies, piling their bodies into the River Scamander in such numbers that, choked with corpses, the water stops flowing. The river implores Achilles to halt his murderous spree before retaliating, summoning its waters in a deluge that threatens to sweep the hero away. In her 2023 translation of the Iliad Emily Wilson rendered Scamander’s rebuke with agonising plainness: ‘This is too much.’
The Iliad, a poem shaped by the excesses of warfare, production, and environmental degradation, exposes the limits of what the planet can bear. That, at least, is the argument advanced by Edith Hall in Epic of the Earth, the first substantial ecocritical study of Homer. Much like the Iliad itself, Epic of the Earth ‘looks backwards and forwards in time’. It illuminates the ideologies that underpinned the Homeric world and makes the compelling case that, if used ‘to expose the deepest contradictions underlying the environmental crisis that we humans have created’, the Iliad can help in the struggle against ecological collapse. Can it?
Read the rest of the review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...
Abigail Bleach is a medievalist and ecocritic based at the University of Manchester.
The Iliad, a poem shaped by the excesses of warfare, production, and environmental degradation, exposes the limits of what the planet can bear. That, at least, is the argument advanced by Edith Hall in Epic of the Earth, the first substantial ecocritical study of Homer. Much like the Iliad itself, Epic of the Earth ‘looks backwards and forwards in time’. It illuminates the ideologies that underpinned the Homeric world and makes the compelling case that, if used ‘to expose the deepest contradictions underlying the environmental crisis that we humans have created’, the Iliad can help in the struggle against ecological collapse. Can it?
Read the rest of the review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...
Abigail Bleach is a medievalist and ecocritic based at the University of Manchester.
July 18, 2025
One of my favorite games is Stardew Valley. It is an immensely popular country-life RPG where you inherit your grandfather’s old farm plot in Stardew Valley. In the game, you can farm, fish, forage, gather timber, build silos, coops, barns, and warehouse, mine for germs and ores, and decorate/manage your farm however you see fit. One of the key aspects of the game is that resources are infinite; you can cut down every tree in Stardew Valley, you can fish until your character collapses from exhaustion, you can plunder the mines to your heart’s content. Be as restrained or cavalier as you want, the resources in the game will replenish until infinity (or until you start a new game). You can even take on missions to clean up the town’s rivers and lakes and the changes are permanent! This will sound like an odd comparison, but I think in some ways Stardew Valley, like Homer’s epic poem, “stuns and delights because it goes far beyond what is required, plausible, or ‘real.’” It is delightful escapism from the harsh and pressing realities we have inflicted on our planet, as laid out and examined in Edith Hall’s book.
I do have some quibbles with the book – Edith Hall sprinkles in plenty of $10 words that I had to look up and she can be a bit repetitive. I think the concept of “ancient forests were cleared to make land available arable farming and the grazing of livestock” (among others) was repeated too many times. Some chapters were much stronger than others. The chapter on comparing the heroes to animals felt a bit out of place with the rest of the book and I was glad to finish it.
There are several interesting things I learned from reading this book – like how this poem discusses the importance of rain and wind-proof clothing; the impossible mathematics (just how many soldiers were deployed to Troy?) that still, somehow fit into place within the larger rhythm of the story; the staggering amount of toil and resources needed to build say the pyre of Patroclus or one single weapon; the environmental destruction we are still dealing with because of the decision and actions of people who lived and worked thousands of years ago, on and on. Edith Hall loves to dig into the details and demonstrate her research, which makes for a compelling read.
On the whole, I think the author’s ecocritical and humanist take is excellent. I studied Classical Studies when I was undergrad and I spent about four months in one class reading, discussing, and analyzing Homer's Iliad, much of which I thankfully retained when reading this book nearly 15 years after my last class. One of the most memorable sequences (at least in my mind) was the river Scamander/Xanthos literally rising up and out of his riverbed to try to strike down Achilles because he was stuffing the river full of bodies, gore, armor, weapons, and other waste. It takes the effort of three different gods to save Achilles. I could only partially articulate why this sequence stuck out to me, but Edith Hall was able to put into words what I could barely string together: when you violate nature over and over again and deliberately destroy and pollute the natural resources, nature will strike back in one way or another. Looking at Trump’s and the Republican’s cuts to hobble and dismantle agencies and non-profits meant to protect/restore/maintain natural resources, parks, and the like in America means we will very likely see rivers on fire and worse, all in a death-cult spiral to grab what they can while they can. As Edith Hall states, "Human beings know how to interfere in nature in order to make it serve human ends, but we cannot predict the full consequences of that interference because something – the ancients called it the gods – is more powerful than we are.”
I do have some quibbles with the book – Edith Hall sprinkles in plenty of $10 words that I had to look up and she can be a bit repetitive. I think the concept of “ancient forests were cleared to make land available arable farming and the grazing of livestock” (among others) was repeated too many times. Some chapters were much stronger than others. The chapter on comparing the heroes to animals felt a bit out of place with the rest of the book and I was glad to finish it.
There are several interesting things I learned from reading this book – like how this poem discusses the importance of rain and wind-proof clothing; the impossible mathematics (just how many soldiers were deployed to Troy?) that still, somehow fit into place within the larger rhythm of the story; the staggering amount of toil and resources needed to build say the pyre of Patroclus or one single weapon; the environmental destruction we are still dealing with because of the decision and actions of people who lived and worked thousands of years ago, on and on. Edith Hall loves to dig into the details and demonstrate her research, which makes for a compelling read.
On the whole, I think the author’s ecocritical and humanist take is excellent. I studied Classical Studies when I was undergrad and I spent about four months in one class reading, discussing, and analyzing Homer's Iliad, much of which I thankfully retained when reading this book nearly 15 years after my last class. One of the most memorable sequences (at least in my mind) was the river Scamander/Xanthos literally rising up and out of his riverbed to try to strike down Achilles because he was stuffing the river full of bodies, gore, armor, weapons, and other waste. It takes the effort of three different gods to save Achilles. I could only partially articulate why this sequence stuck out to me, but Edith Hall was able to put into words what I could barely string together: when you violate nature over and over again and deliberately destroy and pollute the natural resources, nature will strike back in one way or another. Looking at Trump’s and the Republican’s cuts to hobble and dismantle agencies and non-profits meant to protect/restore/maintain natural resources, parks, and the like in America means we will very likely see rivers on fire and worse, all in a death-cult spiral to grab what they can while they can. As Edith Hall states, "Human beings know how to interfere in nature in order to make it serve human ends, but we cannot predict the full consequences of that interference because something – the ancients called it the gods – is more powerful than we are.”
August 12, 2025
This was successful in getting me to think about and appreciate the stories of the Iliad (which I have not read or studies...though I did watch the BBC series last year). Some of the chapters, though, devolve into lists of this and that, examples of (fill in the blank), piled upon one another, like a kind of tedious thematic analysis. When I got there, I let myself skip to the end of those chapters and move on to the next. After completing this one, I have continued with an ongoing look at the Iliad, though, and moved on to a fictional interpretation!
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September 14, 2025Staggering. A masterpiece of unparalleled scholarship.
December 1, 2025
A good look at the intersection of environmental thinking and Homer . . .
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December 31, 2025amazing scholarship and writing. thoroughly enjoyed!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews