The Iliad - Literary Touchstone Classic

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classic includes a glossary and notes to help the modern reader appreciate The Iliad's vocabulary and references to Greek mythology. SO BEGINS THE ILIAD, Homer's epic tale about the Trojan War. Meet the gods and heroes of Greek and Roman myth and legend-the all-powerful Jove, Venus, goddess of love, swift Mercury, as well as the impulsive Paris, heroic Ajax, and the supposedly invincible Achilles. See these characters as the ancients understood them-capable of great valor and incredible pettiness, as ready to fight for sex as for the preservation of a culture. The gods, sometimes little more than a scheming, squabbling family, are the stuff of tabloid journalism, but it is the warriors who provide the action. Famous for some of the bloodiest, most graphic battle scenes in literature, The Iliad is more than a "prequel" to the better-known Odyssey. It is the genesis of an entire body of Western literature and the poetic record of a culture whose influence continues to this day.