A thrilling study of the greatest of all epic poems by one of the world's leading
classicistsHomer's Iliad is the famous epic poem set among the tales of Troy. Its subject is
the anger of the hero Achilles and its dreadful consequences for the warring Greeks and
Trojans. It was composed more than 2 600 years ago but still transfixes us with its tale of
loss and battle love and revenge guided throughout by the active presence of the gods. Its
beauty and profound bleakness are intensely moving but great questions remain: where how and
when it was composed and why it has such enduring power?In this compelling book Robin Lane Fox
addresses these questions drawing on a life-long love and engagement with the poem. He argues
for a place a date and a method for its composition giving us a sense of alternative
approaches and grounding his own in discoveries about long heroic poems composed elsewhere in
the world and the ever-growing evidence of archaeology. Unlike other books on the Iliad this
one combines the detailed expertise of a historian with the sensitivity of a teacher of it as
poetry. Lane Fox goes on to consider hallmarks of the poem its values implicit and explicit
its characters its women its gods and even its horses. He argues repeatedly for its beautiful
observation and addresses its parallel use of what is to us the natural world. Thousands of
readers turn to the Iliad every year. In this superbly written and conceived tribute Lane Fox
expresses and amplifies what old and new readers can find in it. It is pervaded he argues by
a poignant hardness which is not just a poetic trick. It is a deeply held view of the world.
