"The Iliad" by Homer

This is a book I first read when I was fifteen years’ old and honestly I can say that I was so entranced by it and so invested in it, I really didn’t want it to end. It took me a while to read because upon first time, there was a lot of stuff about Ancient Greece and the Trojan War I had to look up whilst doing so, especially the stuff concerning geographical locations and the section about the ships. However, when I finished it, I felt some sense of loss, like I had finished something that had just changed my life entirely and I had no idea what it would do to me in the coming future. From the raging wrath of Achilles to the burial of Hector, breaker of horses - this book came to change everything I had once believed about war. In war, there’s always a side that’s less violent, a side that’s right and a side that’s moral - but not here. Not in “The Iliad”. In this text, both sides were as violent and blood-thirsty as each other and both had a complete disregard for the well-being of anyone on the other side. They were trained to hate each other and racially, though they may not be so different - they were completely different in all of their views concerning the key woman and her status - Helen of Troy. This book was one of the most immersive things I had ever read in my life and I have read it a few times since, I have even taught it to students who have called it one of the greatest war books they have ever read. Why? Well because it’s not all out war. It’s rage, it’s difference, it’s backstabbing and deception, it’s regret and sadness and finally, it’s a one-on-one showdown between the two great heroes of the epic from the two opposing sides: Achilles of the Greeks and Hector of the Trojans. And the prize? Well, nothing but the dignity of their side over the death of innocent Patroclus. Patroclus who meant zero harm whatsoever and only want to fight on behalf of Achilles, who would not. All in all, we could say that this is Agamemnon’s fault for stealing Briseis from Achilles in the first place. But this is not a feasible excuse for Achilles’ behaviour of rage, wrath and ignorance.

When I read it again, I was sixteen and I recorded my second reading experience as being even more immersive than the first. I read a different translation of it, but it was still just as upsetting to read and just as emotional to experience. This time, I was particularly sad for characters like Helen and Andromache. They did no wrong and yet, they suffered horribly for it. I felt strangely bad about Hector’s fate and the fact that Paris was there and really could do nothing about it (well, that was really because Paris is a pretty lousy warrior but it was also because it was only Hector and Achilles on the battlefield). The part that always struck me as particularly emotional and possibly the most emotional part of the entire book was Priam going to Achilles and begging on his hands and knees for Hector’s body back. Achilles had dragged it around on the back of a chariot, laughing in his glory from the fight. But the King of Troy, Priam, goes to Achilles in humble obedience and begs on his knees to have his son’s body so that he can be given a proper burial. Pleading with the warrior, he talks about death and grief and, Achilles, touched by losing Patroclus, yields with cries of depression and grief in return. It is one of the most emotional scenes ever written in literature and yet, it is constantly overlooked and overshadowed by war. I found that this is possibly the most important part of the book because it shows us the key difference between Agamemnon, King of the Greeks and Priam, King of the Trojans. Agamemnon is willing to steal another man’s goods, whereas Priam is willing to beg for his requirements. Agamemnon is proud and Priam is humble. But at the fall of Troy, it proves that neither will prevail.