Michael Seselja’s Reviews > The Iliad > Status Update
Michael Seselja
is 46% done
Finished Book XI.
The pacing is really not attuned to modern sensibilities (and it would be much less memorable if it was). I guess that’s why it’s called an epic.
— Sep 09, 2025 01:23AM
The pacing is really not attuned to modern sensibilities (and it would be much less memorable if it was). I guess that’s why it’s called an epic.
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Michael Seselja
is 71% done
Achilles is loading up for his grand entrance like a big chad. Unfortunately while I was reading Plato he spoiled the ending of this for me. A bit annoying. It’s only been out for 3000 years after all.
— Oct 27, 2025 02:09PM
Michael Seselja
is 58% done
Loui still wants to eat the book so nothing has changed there. The story continues to heat up as more people are brutally killed and I ponder whether the Trojan War really happened.
— Oct 09, 2025 03:44PM
Michael Seselja
is 29% done
Book VI-VII
It’s hard to decide who I want to win this war (obviously I know who wins). There’s heroes and villains and Greek gods on both sides.
There’s even a Tower of Babel analogue as Poseidon gets concerned about the Greeks building a big wall and tells Zeus that men will no longer think about the gods if they succeed. But unlike the Tower of Babel, Zeus tells him to give it a rest.
— Jul 14, 2025 03:15PM
It’s hard to decide who I want to win this war (obviously I know who wins). There’s heroes and villains and Greek gods on both sides.
There’s even a Tower of Babel analogue as Poseidon gets concerned about the Greeks building a big wall and tells Zeus that men will no longer think about the gods if they succeed. But unlike the Tower of Babel, Zeus tells him to give it a rest.
Michael Seselja
is 21% done
Book IV-V
The chaos caused by the the gods fighting on different sides is becoming apparent. I wonder how this sense of chaos (a heavenly court full of feuding gods you can try to play off against each other) affected how the Greeks viewed the world? Probably made them very superstitious.
Also Homer is a great writer, especially his descriptions of death.
— Jul 02, 2025 04:26PM
The chaos caused by the the gods fighting on different sides is becoming apparent. I wonder how this sense of chaos (a heavenly court full of feuding gods you can try to play off against each other) affected how the Greeks viewed the world? Probably made them very superstitious.
Also Homer is a great writer, especially his descriptions of death.
Michael Seselja
is 12% done
Book III
Things are heating up. Getting our first battle scene. Loui is actually enjoying it I think.
— Jun 22, 2025 02:56PM
Things are heating up. Getting our first battle scene. Loui is actually enjoying it I think.
Michael Seselja
is 8% done
Book II
Firstly, absolutely wonderful use of metaphor. Secondly, it seems the ancient Greeks and Hebrews both had a sense of the greatness of their ancestors. Nestor in the Iliad says of the heroes he once knew “never again can I behold such men as [these]”, and you can see this theme echoed when the Israelites look back on the mighty deeds God did to get them out of Egypt, or the mighty kingdom of David.
— Jun 18, 2025 02:24AM
Firstly, absolutely wonderful use of metaphor. Secondly, it seems the ancient Greeks and Hebrews both had a sense of the greatness of their ancestors. Nestor in the Iliad says of the heroes he once knew “never again can I behold such men as [these]”, and you can see this theme echoed when the Israelites look back on the mighty deeds God did to get them out of Egypt, or the mighty kingdom of David.
Michael Seselja
is 4% done
Book I
As the only books I’ve read written about the same time as this are certain parts of the Old Testament, I can’t help but find myself comparing. Due to character limits I’ll elaborate further later, but I think both shared a glorious view of the past. A difference though comes from the chaos of the Greek view of multiple, feuding gods as opposed to the Hebrew idea of one God who is in ultimate control.
— Jun 11, 2025 01:10AM
As the only books I’ve read written about the same time as this are certain parts of the Old Testament, I can’t help but find myself comparing. Due to character limits I’ll elaborate further later, but I think both shared a glorious view of the past. A difference though comes from the chaos of the Greek view of multiple, feuding gods as opposed to the Hebrew idea of one God who is in ultimate control.
