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Helpful Iliad Links

Recently completed Homer's Iliad; here are some resources that are helpful while reading.

Translation

I started out with William Cullen Bryant's ~1870 translation from Standard E-books. I thought this was not the best for a first read and don't recommend compared to Fagles.

Robert Fagles was easy, I agree with others that it is a bit of a dramatic reading, but overall was good.

Caroline Alexander never read, but it exists.

Montana Classical College

A lot of this is sourced from this site which has some great resources. I thought it would be nice to boost his own lectures as well, which I thought were great:

  1. Lecture on Book One

  2. Lecture on Book Two

  3. Lecture on Book Three

  4. Lecture on Book Four

  5. Lecture on Books Five and Six

  6. Lecture on Book Seven

  7. Lecture on Book Eight

  8. Lecture on Book Nine

  9. Lecture on Book Ten

He has some paid ones as well, I can't speak to those.

Online

These are ripped from the MCC above with some of my own added (all great):

Classical Inquiries - just replace the 1 in the link with the next book

A Review of Emily Wilson's Iliad

The New Thinkery A Straussian approach that goes through books 1 and 2. Plenty of helpful observations.

ā€œThe Anger of Achillesā€ lecture by Alex Schulman. This lecture is awesome. Really helped me in my approach to Book One.

ā€œEros and Cosmosā€ discussion led by Seemee Ali. Very thoughtful commentary on Book 14 that helps bring out Zeus’ political predicament re succession.

Pierre Grimes A charming old Jungian. His lecture on book 9 was strongly recommended to me; I listened to his lecture on Book 2 and found it to be helpful.

ā€œHomer’s Godsā€ by Lorraine Pangle.

ā€œHomer and the Foundation of Classical Civilizationā€ by Peter Ahrensdorf.

ā€œHomer and Mappingā€ by Jenny Strauss Clay. Thinking through how to visualize the Iliad.

The Iliad of Homer Great Courses - you can usually get these on the app Libby through your library.

Reads

Links to amazon, but amazon not the best place to get these.

Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in reading the Odyssey and Iliad

The Soul of the Greeks: An Inquiry

Simone Weil, The Iliad, or the Poem of Force (1939)

Book by Book study guide