Max Rose’s Reviews > The Iliad > Status Update

Somewhat confused by the Death of Hector because it starts with Hector running away and being chased by Achilles! And he does this right in front of the city walls where everyone can see? I mean he regains his courage eventually but I’m very surprised Homer included this cowardly part. Wouldn’t the audience think less of Hector? I sure do! Maybe it’s supposed to humanize him? Idk, kind of disappointing.

Almost done

It’s pretty refreshing to get chapters that aren’t battle scenes. I’m getting a little tired of those. Some of those battle chapters are reminiscent of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne just keeps listing fish for entire pages!) which is a very bad thing. This chapter was really good though. Achilles mourning Patroclus and Thetis getting Hephaestus to make new armor for Achilles. Cool!

The differences in the movie Troy keep stacking up lol. Patroclus has just been killed and it’s way way different than in the Troy movie. And I kinda like why they do in the movie tbh. They pump up the drama. In the Iliad his death feels more like the fulfillment of a prophecy.

Interesting that Homer will just tell you what’s going to happen in the next several chapters or even just give you the fate of the characters well before it’s going to happen. This already happened early in the tale but Hector’s fate is reiterated once more. I guess the idea of suspense wasn’t invented yet.