Niamh McConnell’s Reviews > The Iliad > Status Update

Diomedes fights like a mad man at the blessing of Athena, managing to strike down Aphrodite and then Ares (firstly, loved how Diomedes recognised how Helen was not at fault and really, this war is because of Aphrodite’s machinations; secondly, I didn’t know that Aphrodite had a mother?!); afterwards, Hector returns to Troy and is able to reunite with Andromache and his son. So lovely but saddening in hindsight…

We’re into the Iliad, with Achilles refusing to fight the Trojans after his prized Briesis is taken by Agamemnon; Zeus refuses to answer the prayers of the Argives, after Achille’s mother Thetis intervenes, with a duel happening between Menelaus and Paris. Already, Helen is my favourite character, especially in her grief for her home and in her courage to stand up to Aphrodite!

Started reading The Iliad this morning; into the introduction, which goes into detail about the fascinating history of how the Iliad was rediscovered by the Byzantium Empire around the Rennaissance, about the history of its translations and how, in a fashion, the act of translating is similar to oral tradition in how each translation and each oral telling will differ in the details.

Started reading The Iliad this morning; into the introduction, which goes into detail about the fascinating history of how the Iliad was rediscovered by the Byzantium Empire around the Rennaissance, about the history of its translations and how, in a fashion, the act of translating is similar to oral tradition in how each translation and each oral telling will differ in the details.