Reading Notes: Homer's Iliad: part A

Clay pot of Achilles Embassy
Source: Un-Textbook

"Homers Iliad"
For my reading I decided to read "Homer's Iliad" because I have seen it before and learned a about it in high school so I figured I would read it again and really get in-depth with the story. This story is about the Trojan war which started from the kidnapping of the Helen who is the wife of Menelaus, the King of Sparta.Nine years after the start of this war the Greek army attacks a town allied with troy and captures two woman with one being the daughter of a priest of Apollo. The priest tries to buy his daughter back but the king declines so the priest ask the god Apollo for help which he does causing a chain reaction in events. This events eventually lead to a truce between sides but not without some tragic deaths.
The first words of this entire story are "Once upon a time" which gave me the feeling as if I was about to read a big fairy tale type story. As I was reading through the story I was able to notice how characters were portrayed to other characters, like the level of power for example, simply by the things they said and the way they said it. An example of this was from when Zeus and Thetis were talking and when Zeus talked his choice of words made him sound powerful while when Thetis talked the opposite was felt. This is good detail to add to my story to give the audience on how to perceive certain characters. Another thing I realized when reading was how well the author wrote out conversations. I could tell the passion each character had for something just be the choice of adjectives that were used. Using this kind of writing will really help my story come to life.


Bibliography: "Homers Iliad" Retold by Alfred J. Church