Simone Weil a brilliant young teacher philosopher and social activist wrote the essay The
'Iliad' or the Poem of Force at France at the beginning of World War II. Her profound
meditation on the nature of violence provides a remarkably vivid and accessible testament of
the Greek epic's continuing relevance to our lives. This celebrated work appears here for the
first time in a bilingual version based on the text of the authoritative edition of the
author's complete writings. An introduction discusses the significance of the essay both in the
evolution of Weil's thought and as a distinctively iconoclastic contribution to Homeric
studies. The commentary draws on recent interpretations of the Iliad and examines the parallels
between Weil's vision of Homer's warriors and the experiences of modern soldiers.
