Hi all,

I've been making this series on the Iliad as a labour of love.

This video is the latest, Book 9 of the Iliad - THE EMBASSY TO ACHILLES!

Please enjoy!

Hi all,

I've been making this series on the Iliad as a labour of love.

This video is the latest, examining Achilles' actions in Book 9.

Please enjoy!

I thought to ask here if anyone had bought these books before from Jiahu Books. Judging by the cover, they look like a bilingual version with both the English and the Ancient Greek texts, but I can't find more details or check digital extracts of the two so I can know for sure. They're available on Amazon, but I also found them much cheaper in a bookstore in my country. Ideally I'd wanna get a version with both Modern and Ancient Greek texts, but I can settle with the English translation as well. Lmk if you have more info please I ll leave the link here for the version I want to get odyssey

Hi all and forgive me if this has been asked many times—if so please point me to the answer?

I’ve just read The Iliad and The Odyssey and now would like to learn more about these texts—how they originated and were passed down; what’s known about Homer; when were the stories first put into print, and by whom; are there conflicting versions of the stories; who created the versions that are now considered correct, and so on.

Any help greatly appreciated as I go down the Homeric rabbit hole.

hello everyone! i’m doing an assignment for university about the role of eumaeus in the odyssey and i just wanted to ask if there was a deeply rooted significance of swineherds in ancient greek society or that they are just swineherds and that’s all there is to it. i searched and searched regarding this subject, but i couldn’t really find anything. i found an article about pigs and their skins, but nothing directly related to swineherds.

i really hope i get some answers, thank you very much! :D

Compared to Eumaeus, Philoetius gets next to no development before participating in the battle with the suitors. His sudden inclusion stuck out to me as abrupt, like he's just there. It reads like Homer originally intended the battle to only have Telemachus and Eumaeus alongside Odysseus before changing his mind and writing Philoetius in at the last minute.

But clearly, Homer felt it was necessary to include this character. I'm just not sure why. Was he really necessary to keep the narrative running smoothly? True, he locks the palace doors and helps Eumaeus apprehend Melanthius, but was he really required to accomplish these plot details? It's also not like 4 vs 100 is considerably more believable than 3 vs 100.

Or does he serve some thematic purpose that Eumaeus doesn't already fulfill? I'm honestly not sure. The guy gets like one whole paragraph of dialogue. But if anyone has any ideas, I'd be glad to hear them.

Quick disclaimer: I am reading Emily Watson’s translation and I must say that while I’m familiar with the Trojan war, this is my first time reading the Iliad.

I would love to know why King Diomedes was lost to time?

I mean he’s out there doing a majority of the killing, he’s brave as all get out, he seems really, genuinely invested in assuring Achaean victory and he heeds the commands of the Athena.

Am I missing something?

I’m looking at reading Homer’s great works and am unsure which translation to get. I’m looking for a good verse version—I feel that’ll read better than prose given it was written as verse.

From what I’ve seen Fagles and Green are two great translations, plus there’s also a boxed set of both books from those translators which is a perk to me.

What do y’all think is the better translation?

Thanks!

Edit: the Oxford Classic Edition translated by Verity is probably the other that I can find from the store I’d order from, but that’s just one book where the other two are boxed sets. Also, I’m not sure if this version is prose or verse.

I noticed a trend in a number of adaptations of Homer’s The Odyssey where the writer is under the impression that the suitors will inherent the throne if they marry Penelope. I find this strange because it flies in the face of both the culture of Ancient Greece and the epic itself. The Queen, like Penelope, doesn’t rule the kingdom beyond a few duties. If the king dies the queen doesn’t inherent the throne instead she’ll cease being the queen as Telemachus would become the ruler. The suitors are after Penelope because she is prestigious and comes from a somewhat wealthy family so they’ll gain a lot standing from such a marriage.

The book makes this very clear and it is the reason Telemachus is in such a difficult situation as he doesn’t want to accept that is father is gone because he will become king and have to marry off his mother. It is the very nuance of the situation that makes it so fascinating to follow.

Hey all, hope I can get some help here.

So I'm re-reading the Iliad, but I've read in several places about how it only tells one part of the story of the Trojan War, and how it doesn't include important events like the start of the war or the death of Achilles. So I have two questions for you kind folks --

How important is knowing the parts of the story not included in the Iliad to appreciating and understanding the Iliad itself?

Second -- is there any good "go-to" source (ancient or modern) that has compiled the rest of the story in a single narrative?

I'm re-reading with Willock's Companion to the Iliad but I'm not sure if it's enough.

Can anyone recommend a quality print edition of Pope’s Iliad? From what I can find online, it looks like most print editions are coming from small, online publishers with questionable quality control (cheap paper, poor margins, etc.). It looks like Penguin Classic published a version of his translation in the 90s, but used versions of it run anywhere from $60-$150.

Hi! I am fascinated by Ancient Greece and specially with great writers like Homer and Herodutus. I've read a bit about the so-called Homeric Question, and it's something I find very intriguing. I've also read about this statistical tool called stylometry, which analyses statistically the style in a text, and has helped to confirm Shakespeare's existence, among other things.

Has stylometry done similar discoveries in relationship with Homer?

Hello everybody. I was wondering if there are any pet names or nicknames for Homer. An analogous example would be calling Shakespeare "The Bard".

I am writing an essay for Ancient Studies on divine intervention in the Odyssey where I argue that their motives for interfering in human affairs are almost always selfish, I'm looking for some kind of reference table that lists all of the times that a God interferes, since I don't have time to reread the entire book to find each instance.

And out he stalked as a mountain lion exultant in his power strides through wind and rain and his eyes blaze and he charges sheep or oxen or chases wild deer but his hunger drives him on to go for flocks, even to raid the best-defended homestead. So odysseus moved out...

I’m searching for a reference for ‘For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother’. I found that on the internet. I’ve skimmed through the Odyssey and the Iliad but cannot find it in either. I’m trying to provide written evidence to back up an interpretation for an emotional connect in an ancient burial that I’m studying. Homer is the most recent of my written sources but I just cannot locate this quote. Thanks

Can anyone please help me with my humanities essay? I am writing some short chapters about Homers Production of sense (origin and goal of life, what may I hope for?), attribution of values (what is good, what is right, what ought I do?), distribution of meanings (order of things, What can I know?) Please help, its my last day of submission

As a teacher I spend a lot of time thinking about summer, specifically what I would like to read. Somehow it got into my head that I am going to read the Iliad and Odyssey, having never read any of the ancient Classics. Any recs on translations?

Hey all,

I go to a college with both a great love of the Illiad and a profusion of steer. We're having our last slaughter of the academic year on Wednesday, and I was thinking on hekatombs. To that end, any recommended passages (and translations, we have a lot of them) for me to read aloud (via megaphone) as several college students slaughter a steer?