Thursday, April 15, 2010

Finished the Iliad

After several months, I have now finished reading that great Homeric epic, The Iliad. It is a beautiful story - beautiful in that it movingly portrays human character in the extreme situation of war. In the last chapter, we see the panoply of human emotions: the frenzy of the games held after the victory of battle, the longing for sweet sleep after a long day, the insatiable grief and self-torment of a man mourning his best friend. It is good to see that humanity at its core has not changed much since Ancient Greece. In this great epic, we see a reflection of ourselves, as through an ancient mirror.