Homer

When most of us think of Homer, we think “D’OH!” or something similar. Well, not in Greek and Roman Studies. We’ve all heard of The Iliad, and the Odyssey, and read simplified excerpts from them, but trying to read the translated text, is bloody painful. Don’t get me wrong, The Iliad is an interesting story, but it is so full of superfluous text. I guess it isn’t really superfluous, as all words carry some form of meaning, I just find that it makes it very difficult to read. I give you an example:

But he could not repay his parents for the care of his rearing, but his life was cut short, brought down by the spear at the hands of great-hearted Aias. As he came through the front line Aias struck him in the chest, by the right nipple, and the bronze spear pushed straight on through his shoulder. He fell to the ground in the dust like a poplar, which grows in the grassy flat of a great water-meadow, smooth-trunked, with branches springing at its very top: then a wainwright fells it with the gleaming iron, to bend its wood into a fellow for a chariot of finest make, and it lies there seasoning along the banks of the river. Such was Anthemion’s son Simoeisios, killed by royal Aias.

Holy cow! It must’ve taken homer a couple of days to write that one paragraph! Maybe I should try and read this book early in the day when I am fresh, instead of late at night, when I am not.

AGH!

Life goes on…