Once More Unto the Iliad, Dear Friends...A New Tactic

For years, ever since I was 11, in fact, I have wanted to read Mortimer Adler's Great Books list.

Problem is, for me, is that going right into books like the Iliad and the Odyssey is a little bit like jumping to the top of the staircase from the bottom stair. I always end up splat, face-planted somewhere in the middle.

Some books are more approachable than others. I read the Odyssey in high school, and enjoyed it very much at a surface level. Mostly in high school I read whatever books my favorite celebrities were reading. Fortunately, I followed some very literate celebrities. Sting, the front man for the Police, for instance.

 

Totally interested in his reading list. Yeah.

 

I digress.

The Iliad has topped my reading list for several decades now, and it's always been a start-and-stop thing for me. First, my issue was that I figured the ancient Greeks hated women, the way they treated them. Then it was the gore in the battle scenes - Homer seems to take great delight in the dismembering of young soldiers.

But I didn't want to give up entirely. For a book to survive this long, there has to be something of value within it.

Finally, I found a way into it - through the scriptures.

I've read both the Bible and the Book of Mormon as a regular spiritual practice for years, and this became my hook for getting in and through these otherwise unapproachable books. The key to understanding them.

I wasn't expecting scriptural quotes or anything like that, but there are many similar themes to be found - so the Iliad became part of my regular scripture study.

 Let me show you a sample of Book 1. I use the Alexander Pope translation myself, because I'm cheap and I can get it for free online at Project Gutenberg. It's also a little rhyme-y, which I like, but the Robert Fagles or the Richard Lattimore translations are probably a little more accessible to modern audiences. All the translations are different from each other, which is the best it's going to get. Translation is difficult.

Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess, sing!
That wrath which hurl’d to Pluto’s gloomy reign
The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain;
Whose limbs unburied on the naked shore,
Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore.

Since great Achilles and Atrides strove,
Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove!

 Bleah! Homer can get really gross in spots. And this is only the first paragraph!

Anyway, the basic gist in the first book is that Achilles and the king of the Greeks, Agamemnon, are fighting a war together against the Trojans, to get Helen back. But Achilles and Agamemnon are also fighting each other, and their fighting angers the gods, which gets many Greeks soldiers killed and sent to the underworld. 

Where is there a parallel in scriptures?

 

One similar story is the story of Moses and Pharaoh in the Bible (Exodus 1-15). Moses, the Lord's prophet, and Pharaoh contend with each other over the freedom of the Israelites, and Pharaoh refuses to let them go so they can worship the Lord. Pharoah's stubbornness angers God, and as a result, many trials come to the Egyptians, and many people die.

In both stories, wrath and pride bring destruction. 

It's not a one-to-one comparison, of course, and there could be many interesting tangents that come out of  thinking of the details of both. But there's enough similarity and familiarity to keep me awake, and keep me going.

This is only the beginning. While I'm putting up more Conference quotes, I'll throw in a weekly post about my Iliad readings and scripture comparisons from the story.

You lucky people! My inner 11-year-old is geeking out over the possibilities!