I stupidly did not make any notes about this book when I had finished reading it.
I read The Iliad for a class called Political Thought: Homer to Aristotle, which I took mostly for the professor, partly to help me graduate, and partly because I like the time period.
I liked the Iliad. It was a good read; especially when it was held against the heavy philosophy that occupied by other 3 classes and my thesis. However, I didn't enjoy reading it as much as I did The Odyssey. It felt longer than The Odyssey and it was much heavier content wise. I do wish that I had have read it before I read The Odyssey because The Iliad provide crucial background for the book.
The hardest part about reading The Iliad is that it is such a part of our culture that you already know what's going to happen. Every children's show, at least in the North America and the ones that I watched that were highly educational, had at least one episode on The Iliad. There are a ton of books that are retellings of The Iliad. When one finally reads the real thing its different than the impressions one gets from media would make one think, but also very much the same. It is hard to hold these two worlds separate, or at least it was for me, which makes The Iliad a bit more of a slog than it might be otherwise.
That being said, it is beautifully written, as one would expect any Homeric epic to be. I rate it 6 out of 10. If you go to university for liberal arts you can pretty much guarantee that it will be on at least one of your reading lists. It also goes on my list of books that everyone should read before they die.
I read The Iliad for a class called Political Thought: Homer to Aristotle, which I took mostly for the professor, partly to help me graduate, and partly because I like the time period.
I liked the Iliad. It was a good read; especially when it was held against the heavy philosophy that occupied by other 3 classes and my thesis. However, I didn't enjoy reading it as much as I did The Odyssey. It felt longer than The Odyssey and it was much heavier content wise. I do wish that I had have read it before I read The Odyssey because The Iliad provide crucial background for the book.
The hardest part about reading The Iliad is that it is such a part of our culture that you already know what's going to happen. Every children's show, at least in the North America and the ones that I watched that were highly educational, had at least one episode on The Iliad. There are a ton of books that are retellings of The Iliad. When one finally reads the real thing its different than the impressions one gets from media would make one think, but also very much the same. It is hard to hold these two worlds separate, or at least it was for me, which makes The Iliad a bit more of a slog than it might be otherwise.
That being said, it is beautifully written, as one would expect any Homeric epic to be. I rate it 6 out of 10. If you go to university for liberal arts you can pretty much guarantee that it will be on at least one of your reading lists. It also goes on my list of books that everyone should read before they die.
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