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On the one hand, it sounds like Achilles, boor that he is, has a growth arch, and that the story is plotted and paced much better than the Odyssey—I mean, the Iliad is full of meandering side-plots and isn’t at all tightly plotted if you will, in that sense, but the Odyssey…. Okay, story’s over, children! Go to bed! —But daddy! I want another six hours of blood letting before I go to bed! —Alright already! Sheesh! So! After the story ended….

I mean, the Iliad is like the Story and the Odyssey is like the Sequel, you know. And I think Homer and the Great Boors of Archaic Greece understood wars better than their somewhat frightening love affairs, so their war story is I think better, you know.

But the other part of that is, well, if the Odyssey is Bloody, Very Bloody, Extra Blood, the Iliad is like…. *chuckles darkly*

—Blah blah blah poetry poetry metaphor, Real men fight in the battle! And since you pussies aren’t real men, we’ll break through your lines and rape your women in the middle of the battle! Blah blah blah metaphor metaphor
HermesChild: But my mom said that rape is sad.

(twenty minutes later, in a different dimension)
French policeman: So Mister Achilles tendon, you did, euh, euh…. Rape?
—No, no…. It was a metaphor.
French policemen: Oh hoy, the metaphor, ce n’est pas? Oui? Very good. You’re free to go.
—Thank you.
HermesChild: But remember…. (mouths) Rape is sad.
—What did you say?
HermesChild: Nothing.

…. It’s kinda like a mashup of the Old Testament, you know—lots of long lists of funny names (now Gobbley-gook was the killer of Fookeley-fook, who was the killer of Dookeley-dook….), and sports writing, you know—He’s on the ten! He’s at the five! He’s at the one! Ah, he’s down! The ball is loose! It’s a fumble! The Spartan Argives have lost the ball!)….

It’s kinda relaxing with its total lack of meaning, or anything really serious, you know, just—Big Boys. Big Boys Big Balls. Balls 🏈 🏈 LOL

I CANT. I can’t even. 😆

…. /banging his palm against the table/ He goes on talking and talking for ten minutes—
But all the subtitles say are, ‘I will kill you’….

…. I understand that Homer is ornate, pretty words, you know, but I’m not entirely convinced that it’s formal in the way that we’re used to, which is one reason why I’m not offended (or obsequious) even though it has many of the characteristics of old Greek and indeed old human civilization.

…. “And so we decided not to make the Whole episode about Cylons running around gunning down Galactica crewmen—as fun as that would be.”
~Ronald D Moore, Battlestar Galactica episode commentary

—(old man face) And then, and then, gosh children, I’ve forgotten what comes next.
—Uh, he probably killed him, right?
—Yes, by Hercules, you’re right! ~And then Joe Bob took out his spear, and, faking Scott Bob out, spilled his guts beside the bloody ships. ~ Say, how did you know?
—Lucky guess. 😸🤖

…. I guess I’m not the only 21st century reader who finds this to be a little too removed from my experience to be Really, Really Great, even if I guess it does have some value as entertainment—John Hobbit-Shire, for example, once said that for him there wasn’t anything so bad about “escapism”; I don’t really desire escapism in the same sense, but sometimes a mental palate cleanse is nice…. And it might be somewhat better than “Star Trek”, debatably, even if for me it’s clearly not as good as Shakey.

…. On the one hand, I’m not entirely sure about the whole growth arch thing; it seems like even when your friend dies in Homer—yes, there’s certainly a certain emotion, but mostly you just have to carry on like a strong man.

It certainly does give you a certain perspective though, essentially non-magical classical ‘paganism’, life and war before the gushing emotionalism of the Middle Ages and the Victorian Age. Homer certainly liked strong men. And men can certainly be distant, alienating, macho, but then Aphie probably would go with him before the philosopher who thinks she’s an embarrassment, you know. Poor Aphie. Laffy taffy! Gotta be big for Aphs!

…. It seems to me that much of what the introducer says about the character of people like Hector and Achilles isn’t really backed up by the text; it’s much more a poem of plot than character, even if the plot is a meandering one to let in length and flourishes of language. But basically, a lot happens, but the characters are quite generic. Hector saying goodbye to his wife is the Warrior saying goodbye to the Wife, you know. Of course, most things have that layer, but here it’s the primary layer because there’s not a lot of individuation. And then, to the extent that trading all your character points for plot points seems like a bad deal, a lot of that is on expectations, on the introducer, very much the generic introducer of the old school—We are Greeks, children! We are men! We can do anything!!…. I don’t know. It’s fine…. But it is definitely about/doing/, not ‘being’, you know.

…. But I suppose it is all expectation. If it weren’t for expectation—throws your head back and roar, This is the Only Poem Ever Written!—it would be easier for the story’s native charm to storm through…. They were so physical. Before Plato the Greeks didn’t like the afterlife—Greek men lived to get things done, you know. Of course, duality seems to always mean the two unequal parts of the world swirling about at war…. The other way, by no means better, seems to be withdrawal, and then you don’t lie to your friends, you know. You don’t have any.

…. I mean, the fights in the Bible are rather more concise, although I suppose the Iliad is quite cinematic, you know, and longer than a movie/novella, right.

And Achilles was all, And that’s how you run the football—right.

…. Incidentally I think that they were all Greeks; it was just like a contest between the Mainlanders and the Colonists, not unlike the World Series or something…. Or the Hunger Games. (Don’t ask if that’s a historical opinion.)

…. Oh my god, they literally had a drinking-party amidst the corpses, you know, like, Everyday is Halloween, in Ancient Greece! 😽

I can’t even imagine what the good men of the Empire would make of it if some athlete or God help us, a native (Indian) were to act like this, you know.

But, whatever. I read the books of Homer! So, that happened. I guess he’s like the Greek Shakespeare, albeit a little bit more of a motor head, or a gym rat, or something, you know.

Contacted seller day item received 5/9/23, about badly cracked case and ABRIDGED version.

En la Antigüedad se consideraba que este poema se basaba en la historia real y que los personajes que aparecían en él eran un modelo de comportamiento y heroísmo. Los acontecimientos que narra tienen lugar en el transcurso de los últimos cincuenta y un días de un conflicto que duró diez largos años, y se desarrollan en torno a la figura del héroe heleno Aquiles, «el de los pies ligeros». ( )

I've read three, maybe four translations of the Iliad. It's not as interesting as Homer's Odyssey. ( )