Okay, I'm reading The Iliad

[northernsoul]

and I'm doing it of my own free will! Lately I've had a jones for the really classic "classics." I can't think of a better place to start than with good ol' Homer.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[BOSSHOG]

1. I heard its a real Odyssey

[Monkeyman]

5. What your High School did have you read it

[ixion]

2. yeah! you go!

:applause: :woohoo:

I'm all for reading the classics. Both reading and writing are becoming lost arts in our culture.

[rfranklin]

3. You're a better man than me!

And if you are a woman, you're a better man than me!

[Phredicles]

4. I've long thought of Agamemnon as the original

pointy-haired boss...

[LouisianaLiberal]

6. Is it a prose or verse translation?

And if you've seen the movie "Troy", you'll have a good laugh when you see that the movie got so many things wrong. How can you use "dramatic license" with the Iliad? That's like making a film of the New Testament and giving Jesus a mega-church preacher's boufant(sp?)hairdo because it will sell better to a modern audience.

[xchrom]

7. whose translation are you reading?

that's one of the wonderful/awful things about the illiad and the odyssey.

i've read each a couple of times -- and i'm always trying a different translation.

i don't have ANY copies on my book shelves right now -- so i can't think of who i've read.

[northernsoul]

9. Robert Fagles, trans.

So far, so good. It's got a little cheat sheet glossary / pronunciation guide in the back, which makes it a lot easier to keep track for who's who. I'd recommend it!

[xchrom]

11. cool!

i want to get it back on shelves -- so your guide will come in handy!

thanks.

[teenagebambam]

8. Not that I'm belittling the classics...

...but I must put in a plug for Eric Shanower's fantastic Age of Bronze...the Trojan War in ongoing comic book form (or graphic novels, to make it sound classier). It's meticulously researched and really, really good.

http://age-of-bronze.com/aob/index.shtml

[northernsoul]

10. actually, that looks pretty cool, too.

I'll check it out once I'm done reading the books and creating the imagery in my mind (I'm one of those sticklers who HATES to see the movie before reading the book - I wanna create my own mental visuals).

[Sequoia]

16. Nice.

Thanks.

[Goblinmonger]

12. If you are in the mood for classics

after you finish The Illiad, you need to read Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. It is a FABULOUS translation. It is like butter. Seriously. I mean it. READ IT DAMNIT!

[YankeyMCC]

13. Enjoy! I read the Iliad and Odyssey

every couple of years or so. I've actually just started the Aeneid.

It's fascinating to read these ancient books and see the origin of themes you'll find in all classic stories. After reading Book 2 of the Aeneid I was struck with the similarities between the scene with Hecuba pleading with Priam not to go and fight after taking up his sword and armor and the scene where Eowyn asks Theoden not to go to war when he takes up his sword after so long.

[northernsoul]

14. Yep, I've got Virgil and Ovid queued up next

Homer has actually been pretty smooth reading as long as I can keep track of who's who.

[Sequoia]

15. I spent a summer on my hammock reading it.

By choice also. Some parts were really funny even though it was gross. Death and funny shouldn't occupy the same page but that's those Greeks for you!