Robin Lane Fox,
Homer and His Iliad (New York: Basic Books, 2023), p. 3:
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.