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If you were to read The Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, would you read them in order or does it not really make a difference? I'm thinking, before reading Aeneid, to read the Iliad first. BUT, there is a lot in Aeneid (according to most commentaries) that is similar not only to the Iliad but the Odyssey as well. So maybe read both Homer's first?
I would read them in order. That's the way we had to do it as freshmen in college. If you don't want to read the entire books I would at least read the Cliffs notes so you're familiar with what went beforehand. All three are seminal books in the canon of Western classics, and so sooner or later you're going to have to know what went on in them. Speaking of, I wouldn't mind reading through them again some time.
I was going to start reading the Iliad, but taking two courses and the Greek right now might make that difficult. Maybe I can just go little by little. I just bought Aeneid. If I'm going to grad school for Classical history, I figure I better start soon! My tutor and I have been working on translating some Homer, but nothing much at this point.
I've read the Iliad at least a dozen times. 🙂Read them in order, and read them in long sittings. Don't read thirty minutes and then break, read for 2-3 hours and then break. The reason I say this is because the words are so poetic and charged, that it just breaks their momentum if you don't totally get immersed in them. The Iliad awed me (I love Hector's character). You should also watch Brad Pitt in Troy. Wolfgang Peterson captured the Iliad as I imagined it.
I agree with that, Donnie. That's why I need to dedicate time to it. I'm going to approach it like I did Herodotus and read a whole section whether it's 50 or 100 pages and do it just as you said, so as not to break the momentum. When I did my Olympics paper, I read bits of it here and there, and the whole section on the death of Patroclus and Achilles' reactions and funeral games. It was heartbreaking. It was at that point that I fell in love with Greek history and finally understood what the big deal was with the Greeks. I just asked my tutor about this and, after we finish the current grammar book, we're going to translate Homer and as she put it "get the real beauty of it in its original language." I'm looking forward to that a lot! She recited some of it, and now I understand a little bit about how metric poetry works. But I'd still like to find the time to read it in English first.I saw Troy. It was pretty good, but I just don't picture (maybe because I don't like him) Brad Pitt as Achilles. Then again, I don't think any actor could capture the true character of Achilles.
Brad Pitt was a bit small for Achilles, but his arrogance and vanity were spot on. Eric Bana was 100% Hector though, and I feel he upstaged Pitt in that movie.
