Attributed to Homer, "The Iliad", along with "The Odyssey", is among the oldest literary documents in the Greek language. This epic war story depicts seven key weeks during the battle for Ilium, or Troy, culminating in the decisive battle between Achilles and Hector. More importantly, "The Iliad" attempts to define the qualities of the heroic character. Here, in a single volume, students will find some of the leading critical analyses available on this ancient work.
A dramatization for radio in eight one-hour episodes written and directed by Yuri Rasovsky
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon. Indeed it is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature. It was probably composed near the end of the eighth century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek-speaking coastal region of what is now Turkey.
In this book Joachim Latacz turns the spotlight of modern research on the much-debated question of whether the wealthy city of Troy described by Homer in the Iliad was a poetic fiction or a memory of historical reality. Earlier excavations at the hill of Hisarlik, in Turkey, on the Dardanelles, brought no answer, but in 1988 a new archaeological enterprise, under the direction of Manfred Korfmann, led to a radical shift in understanding. Latacz, one of Korfmann's closest collaborators, traces the course of these excavations, and the renewed investigation of the imperial Hittite archives they have inspired. As he demonstrates, it is now clear that the background against which the plot of the Iliad is acted out is the historical reality of the thirteenth century BC. The Troy story as a whole must have arisen in this period, and we can detect traces of it in Homer's great poem.
Have you ever read a great classic and come across an unfamiliar word?
There are many editions of The Iliad. This one is worth the price if
you would like to enrich your vocabulary, whether for self-improvement
or for preparation in advance of entrance examinations. Each page is
annotated with a mini-thesaurus of uncommon words highlighted in the
text. Not only will you experience a great classic, but learn the
richness of the English language with synonyms and antonyms at the
bottom of each page.
