The Illustrated Iliad

by Homer

Sing, O Goddess, the anger of Achilles, son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans…

So begins Homer’s The Iliad, the classic account of the final year of the Trojan War, a vicious, 10-year bloodbath between the Greeks and the Trojans following the abduction of Helen of Sparta. In this prose retelling of Homer’s poem, we follow the mighty Greek hero Achilles and his comrades as they battle against the Trojans, the gods, and even fate itself.

Genres: Classics, Mythology, Greek Mythology

402 pages, Hardcover

Published October 17, 2023

About the author

Homer (Greek: Όμηρος born c. 8th century BC) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.
Homer's Iliad centers on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles during the last year of the Trojan War. The Odyssey chronicles the ten-year journey of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, back to his home after the fall of Troy. The poems are in Homeric Greek, also known as Epic Greek, a literary language which shows a mixture of features of the Ionic and Aeolic dialects from different centuries; the predominant influence is Eastern Ionic. Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally. Despite being predominantly known for its tragic and serious themes, the Homeric poems also contain instances of comedy and laughter.
Homer's epic poems shaped aspects of ancient Greek culture and education, fostering ideals of heroism, glory, and honor. To Plato, Homer was simply the one who "has taught Greece" (τὴν Ἑλλάδα πεπαίδευκεν). In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, Virgil refers to Homer as "Poet sovereign", king of all poets; in the preface to his translation of the Iliad, Alexander Pope acknowledges that Homer has always been considered the "greatest of poets". From antiquity to the present day, Homeric epics have inspired many famous works of literature, music, art, and film.
The question of by whom, when, where and under what circumstances the Iliad and Odyssey were composed continues to be debated. Scholars remain divided as to whether the two works are the product of a single author. It is thought that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity; the most widespread account was that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.

French: Homère, Italian: Omero, Portuguese, Spanish: Homero.

Reviews

[Cedric Ngo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would’ve given this 3 stars upon putting the book down on completion, but I rate it higher after further analysis and review because it’s part of the reading process. This book does well in feeling like a true war epic with countless names alongside heroic acts and intervention from gods.

A central idea of the book is the glorification of war with every hero getting their lineage spelt out on every action, yet the opposite theme shines largely as well. Countless characters are given backstory just to die an almost meaningless death because they are at the whims of gods. Why do the Greeks continue fighting for longer than a decade, an ocean away from their home?

The answer is nested in the 2nd, more prevalent theme of pride and its folly. The Greeks continue the war for glory and to put their name in history. It’s even revealed that Achilles could’ve lived a long life but quiet life had he chosen to stay home. Instead, he joins the Trojan war where he’s given a fate that means he will die in battle.

The pride of Achilles is really the core conflict of this epic. He is the greatest hero in the Greek army but refuses to brandish his sword after being disrespected by the king. He is only present in a quarter of the book but is absence is felt the whole way through. Had Achilles been less prideful, many Greeks alongside his closest friend may have survived. In fact, leaders refuse to retreat every time they are given the chance and are immediately punished for it.

On the opposing side, Hector of the Trojans fights for his family and safety of his land. I felt much more sympathetic to Hector as he said goodbye to his wife and toddler child with certainty that he wouldn’t return home.

That being said, the resolution of the epic is wildly satisfying since it is a quiet and peaceful one, despite 90% of the epic being fighting. Achilles is unable to stop mourning his best friend, despite avenging him and almost entirely guaranteeing victory in war. Instead, Achilles finally finds peace when Hector’s old father begs for Hector’s dead body back. Achilles is humbled and finds empathy here as he relates and remembers that he will never return to his father.

Some passing thoughts:
Poseidon > Zeus
Jersey swapping was invented in war.
Achilles killed so many people in a river that the river started beating him up.
We really gotta know the family tree of everyone on the battle field don’t we.
Being a charioteer gotta be the worst job out there.
Gods got no life and have nothing better to do than mess with mortals.
How the heck did they pass along this story verbally?

P.S. make sure you get an appropriate translation for this book. I wish I hadn’t committed to one version and swapped off sooner.

[liam corr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the translation is fine for a prose rendering rather than the meter, certainly for anyone who is new to the Iliad/ a young reader. The illustrations are nice but I would’ve expected info about them or more context rather than just image credits

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Iliad tells the epic story of the war of Troy. Well, in reality we're just thrown into the middle of it, and at its core it's just troops of men fighting over women, but nonetheless, it is Homer's epic of the war between the Trojans and the Greeks, with gods and goddesses meddling in the middle. If you want drama, bloodshed, and a whole lot of repetition of names and titles, this is the tale for you.

Well, since I don't really like drama all that much, prefer to steer clear of gore as much as I can, and the repetition of things make me inevitably doze off (that's why school is rough for me) this book wasn't fitting for me, to be honest. While I was enchanted by The Odyssey for the enthralling adventures that Odysseus goes through, this book is the total opposite. There is nothing that pushes me to keep going with the reading, making it a herculean task of trying to simply get through the next page (which are huge for my print version) and since Agamemnon, king of the Greeks, kept being referred to as the "son of Atreus," (and since I have no clue who Atreus is) it took me about fifty pages to finally get down who they were talking about (because as I told you, we are dropped into the middle of the war, so unless you already know Greek mythology or you were there, you probably won't understand half of what is going on, like me). But one thing I really enjoyed, as the nerd I am, were the very small things that you can only appreciate when you're bored out of your mind. At one point of the book, the son of Atreus offers Achilles a bunch of "lesbians," women from Lesbos, which I found very funny since I did not think of it that way at the beginning, and since I'm a high school student I'm very immature and giggle to myself about stupid things.

Overall, it's a fun book if you have nothing else to read and you don't mind the constant dying of people you know basically nothing about. It's also fun if you have this version, the illustrated, since the paintings are very helpful at understanding the artistic vision of the words. There are also naked people from time to time, so you never know what's in the next page, so I'll give it 2/5 star rating for a book to read during family night.

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

so much more boring than the odyssey💔

[Paul Menefee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mean...it's the classic. So many stories steal from this one. But if it's your first time reading ancient style storytelling, it might be hard. Pick up a study guide, learn some history and Greek mythology first.

[Cami Petty · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review is about the edition / translation/ illustration compilation, not the Iliad itself.

I was very disappointed to realize that there were no sources for the images. I would’ve loved to see a caption, place it was created/ found, and timestamp next to each of the images. Even though I was reading the book, sometimes I still didn’t know who exactly I was looking at because the pictures didn’t always align with the events just right. Really a missed opportunity with not putting in any sort of info about the artwork at all. But I still liked looking at the pictures and it made reading the dense book just slightly easier.

I very much appreciated the summaries at the start of the chapters— it made taking in the story a lot easier.

I’m no pro at Ancient Greek or anything and haven’t read many other versions of the Iliad, so the translation never bothered me.

This is an unabridged version of the book (meaning it left out no details) I’ve found I prefer the abridged versions because there are pages upon pages of useless death scenes— but I won’t hold that against this book because it’s true to the original Iliad.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

WAR IS OVER. Except only figuratively because the book about the Trojan war starts 9 years into it and ends before Achilles even dies. THERE WAS NO HORSE.

So painfully boring in the beginning then it got kinda cool with some of the fighting, then it got boring again because it was the same thing over and over again then interesting with the whole Patroclus moment and Achilles rage.

Anyway it was super cool to read about a book that is so old that allegedly Homer sung? He memorized the whole thing that took me 5 months to read? And he would perform it??? Insane the whole Greek culture and myths are so cool and it is so cool to see their perception of the gods and their role. Omg and then he did the odyssey too.

I do not care about your whole bloodline stop telling me. I don’t want to have to memorize four names and six epithets for each person. The Ajaxes were so duo though I love them. Diomed and Odysseus were also duo.

[Sophy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll be honest, I already knew everything that happened in this book. With all the representations in media and pop culture, it was pretty easy to piece the story together. I only read it for the bragging rights, and because I wanted to compare it to the Odyssey, which I really enjoyed. I wouldn’t recommend to the casual reader. If you really want to read the Iliad as a beginner to Greek mythology, start with Emily Wilson translation, not this one. The translation was good, just very poetic and hard to understand. I did like the illustrations, although they did have quite a bit of nudity. A sharpie did the trick, and now I can read it to my kids someday when I want them to fall asleep.

[Corrine Zelaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

It’s a very hard read. The wording and the names were just physically hard to read. It was also for the most part boring. It’s was all gods plotting and people talking to each other. On the rare fighting scene it was interesting. Also I was confused on who was talking and what was happening to which person. First they would use the real name then proceed to say son of___ and half way through the page id forget who we were talking about.

I just forced myself to finish it so I could read the Odyssey. Maybe I’ll read it again but definitely not anytime soon.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yannis recommended Homer for my summer reading and when I told him that I found the Odyssey boring, I got a scolding about how amazing Homer was for being such a trailblazer lmao! So in his honor and for the honor of classic literature, I had to read this at least once.

This was only mildly better than the Odyssey, more action, but soooo slow and so much repetition. Big respect to Homer, but I'm glad that the reading experience is over and I can officially just say I've read it now.

[Avery Lance · Rating 3 out of 5]

So there’s no Trojan Horse? There’s no Achilles heel moment? There’s no rescue of Helen? There so much that isn’t in this book that I thought was?

I know it’s a classic that has survived for 2,500 years but brother this book is 80% unnecessary backstory, 10% description of death, and 10% various actual plot points.

Is it blasphemy to say I’d love to read an abridged version without two paragraphs of back story for every person that’s about to get hit with a spear?

5 stars though for this edition of the book which is really cool.

[Robert Rhodes · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s an older translation (1898) so the wording can be a little difficult at times. I considered rating this three stars because I took a brief break to read a separate book about halfway through this one; however, I think that was more about circumstances surrounding the other book than it was about my appreciation for this book. It was a refreshing break from all the Greek names and I flew through the last half afterwards.

[brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

the last 100 pages were so much more interesting to me. there were a lot of new things i learned here

[chy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m sure he Iliad is fine, but I was fooled into thinking this was the original verse, and got stuck with prose.
Two stars for the ensuing emotional damage.

[Allison Goode · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let's not normalize translating poetry into prose. It just doesn't work. The repetitiveness of this story would have been tolerable in verse.

[Christian McNeely · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe how well this holds up. The Iliad isn't the story of the Trojan War, it is quite plainly about Achilles' wrath. Reading this after The Republic was a nice change of pace.

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

📖 3.5/5