The Iliad

Who is a hero? How should we treat our enemies? How should we remember the dead? The purpose of this class is to read the Iliad in its entirety while asking large questions of this world-famous poem. Originally performed orally in Ancient Greek, the Iliad tells a story of the heroes of the Trojan War, beginning with the heated argument between the Greek warriors Achilles and Agamemnon, and ending with Achilles returning the body of his hated opponent Hector to Hector’s weeping father Priam, the king of Troy. In between these dramatic events are violent battles, angry gods and beautiful descriptions of nature, often carefully paired through similes to memorialize the deaths of otherwise anonymous soldiers.

Despite the poem’s original audience and performers living in a world radically different than our own, with its cruel system of slavery and actively engaged gods, readers today continue to find the poem provokes reflections on their own lives on what is important.

We will read Emily Wilson’s verse translation. Because we will also ask questions about the process and problems of translating ancient epic poetry, we will supplement this reading with selections from other translations both old, such as Alexander Pope’s, modern, such as Richmond Lattimore, and ones perhaps best described as post modern, such as Christopher Logue’s War Music. Likewise, we will compare the performance of oral poetry in the Iliad with poetic performances from other cultures, including the epic poems of 20th century Yugoslavia and Kyrgyzstan in order to better understand the creation of the poem.

However, the majority of the class will be set aside for a close reading of the poem itself and the major themes within the poem. We will address social and human themes in the poem with which readers have long grappled, such as heroic ethics, shame and honor, as well as stylistic concerns, including formulaic repetition, ekphrasis, catalogues, type scenes and ring composition. We will also include methods of reading the poem that are more recent, such as feminist readings, in particular Laura Slatkin’s analysis of the powers of Thetis, and also ecological readings, specifically Edith Hall’s argument that the Iliad documents how war’s thirst for resources destroys the natural environment.

The Iliad has influenced a wide range of leaders and thinkers, from the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great to the Catholic pacifist Simone Weil. Contemporary Americans continue to find the poem both a mirror for persistent problems, such as how Jonathan Shay reads the poem to better understand the psychology of combat veterans, and a continued source of inspiration, such as Madeline Miller’s novel Song of Achilles.

This class will not demystify the Iliad, but rather provide students with ideas and methods of reading it that will make reading this ancient poem an even more urgent and purposeful endeavor.