ILIAD -Penguin Classics-

The Iliad is the culmination of a long-standing oral tradition. The oral technique enabled a master bard like Homer to develop what may historically have been an event of minor importance into a fully fledged epic. So, out of single episode n the legendary Trojan War Achilles withdrawial from the fighting and his return to kill the Trojan hero, Hector, Homer generated the twenty-four books of the Iliad. What the oral technique does not authomatically provide, however, is the genius of the poem which is rendered here so elegantly and clearly in E.V Rieu's acclaimed translation. Homer has created a timeless, dramatic tragedy. His characters are heroic but their passions and problems are human and universal, and he presents them with compassion, understanding and humour against the harsh background of the war and the quarrels of the gods.