Jesse wrote: To live, to survive to out-trick your opponent
is the only good for them, thus Odysseus is the most "heroic"
of all the Greeks of the two epics, surviving the long
journey home even though he is the most underhanded and
trickiest sonofabitch of them all! I think that's one of the
reasons its so good.
****************** I finished THE ILIAD at lunch today and
was impressed with it. Your comments about the difference
between the Greek and Christian outlook kept me thinking
throughout the book. Homer's characters are not Greek ideals,
so it was hard for me at times to differentiate between
character flaws which Homer had no problem leaving
unresolving and characteristics he found totally acceptable.
Some interesting insights came out of it, especially in the
parallels between Greek and Christian thought. It came to me
that all people need to find some comfort, some
justification, some juicy morsel to snatch from death's icy
grip. Christians can get a lot. They can die as martyrs and
then go to heaven. The Greeks, like you stated, all go to
Hades, so they are limited to kicking some serious ass, going
out in a blaze of glory, and living on in the memories of
others. The first battle is for land. The last is for
myth.
The I.A. Richards version I have was very readable and
smooth. The short summaries of a couple of the books that
were left out made me wish he had included them.
On to THE ODYSSEY now, then Virgil.
miker
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