ingrid

A time of instability and change

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Every day you get a picture of my dog, Whimsy.

There will be posts about books.

Also, apparently, opera.



Did you know The Iliad is really good? Because The Iliad is really good and Emily Wilson's new translation is ALSO really good, readable and rhythmic and fiercely violent in the way a lot of ancient poetry could be. If you're hot for translation notes, Wilsons are incredibly comprehensive, with an introduction of approximately 75 pages and backmatter of 150ish pages. Do you want to know about the geography of probably actual Troy or the opinions of previous translators or even critics who would have been roughly contemporaries of Homer, or how many sons Priam has (it's at least 50)? Wilson's got you covered, baby.

One of the most fascinating things about actually sitting down to read The Iliad is how much of the cultural knowledge of the Trojan War story doesn't come from The Iliad. It takes place a decade into the war so there's none of the golden apple judgment of goddesses stuff. It ends before Troy falls, so the horse doesn't fall. It's just the bloody story of a long war and the sacrifices the men involved are willing to make and why.

It's also the story of how Agamemnon sucks.

God, does he suck.


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in reply to @ingrid's post:

If you ever feel like revisiting it, I'd definitely recommend Wilson's new translation. She uses really accessible language and doesn't try to undersell or oversell the nature of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus and she pays a lot of attention to how women are described. BOOK HEAVY though. I had to read it propped on a pillow because my hands and wrists could not handle that much Book.

No Montrith, AGAMEMNON LIVES. He survives Troy and goes home where he gets killed by I think Orestes and Elektra? Odysseus talks to his ghost in the Odyssey but he definitely survives The Iliad. The only major characters who actually beef it in the text are Hector and Patroclus.