Daniel Seltier’s Reviews > Iliad, Books 13–24 > Status Update

Book 23 finished.
This was hard to appreciate. It's only about funeral rites and funeral games. For a modern reader they can be very boring. But for Homer they obviously ment a lot. So this book deals in a very different way with two central themes of the Iliad, death and immortality. With this in mind one probably could get a glimps of the hidden beauty of this book, that's they way I read it at least.

Book 22 finished.

Finally the fight Homer was preparing for 21 books, and he did not fail to deliver. He really seemed to enjoy portraiting Achilles' wrath because it's out of control.
Andromache's lament at the end was quite moving.

Book 21 finished.

Achilles fighting a river and the war of the gods. Homer goes all in.

Book 20 finished.

After twenty books, Homer finally gives us the wrath of Achilles he promised us in the first line, and Achilles slays Trojans like a maniac.
(This book also contains the famous prophecy Poseidon gives Aeneas, which made Virgil's Aeneid possible.)

Book 19 finished.

A short and strange book. Half the book is about Agamemnon wanting to give Achilles gifts (as if there was not war going on) and Achilles refusing to eat before battle (somehow Homer has to stress this immensly). And finally Achilles chats with his horse, which prophecies his death. But it has an interesting Heracles story and a beautiful armor scene.

Book 18 finished.

I don't want to know the condition of Patroclus' corpse after two books of dragging him this way and that way, a wonder that Achilles could still recognize him ...
Finally Achilles starts doing something, his grief is quite moving.
Book 18 ends with the famous shield section - stunning.

Book 16 finished.
Patroclus, nooooooo!!!

Book 15 finished. After a very interesting quarrel among the gods we return to the battlefield. The greeks are in a pityful situation, for Achilles still behaves like a defiant child and Hector is more furious than ever. And obviously a lot of slaying.

Book 14 finished.
Homer decided once more that his story needs some spiciness so he let Hera seduce Zeus.
This scene is clearly of of Homers best scenes.

Book 13 finished.
Another long book of fighting and battelfield action which Homer manages to keep entertaining, cruel but also beautiful.