Friday, November 15, 2024
Allure of the Iliad
Robin Lane Fox, Homer and His Iliad (New York: Basic Books, 2023), p. 3:
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As these indirect tributes recognize, the Iliad itself is something we could not possibly now compose. It is at least 2600 years old, but it is beyond our ability. It remains overwhelming. It makes us marvel, sometimes smile and often cry. Whenever I read it, it reduces me to tears. When I leave it and return to everyday life, it changes the way in which I look on the world.Id., p. 7 (they = readers of his book):
I hope they will proceed to such a reading or even to learning Homeric Greek: it becomes possible within two years to read long stretches of the Iliad in Greek and catch its force and flow.
