#and it goes that hard partly bc its enormous influence does mean that it operates on like what i understand to be the rules of narrative

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

it’s like, the iliad is the story of the rage of achilles, and what does achilles do with his rage? he gets his best friend killed by sitting on the sidelines out of spite; he kills the most decent man in the entire bajillion line poem, then desecrates his body while his father watches. that’s what the story is: sing to me of the rage of achilles, and every ugly thing that comes with it. and he’s a hero, of course he’s a hero in the eyes of the story, and i think it is actually much less valuable to say no, someone like this can’t be a hero, than it is to say, well maybe he is and maybe just maybe the person or people composing these lines and the people reciting them and listening to them three thousand years ago, maybe they had a view of heroism that understood the costs. bernard knox’s introduction to the fagles translation points out that in the century we believe the homeric epics to have been composed, athens - athens! not military cult sparta! athens! the fuckers that invented democracy! - spent more years at war than not. more years at war than not, in a century where the technology of war was not yet as it is now, where a country could go to war and leave much of its populace functionally untouched by violence. maybe it means something important, actually, that achilles is hero and monster both.

#in 8th grade i was really sure i wanted to be a classicist #but actually i was just obsessed with my latin teacher #but. every now and then i think too long about it and i remember like #no yeah it absolutely does go that hard #and it goes that hard partly bc its enormous influence does mean that it operates on like what i understand to be the rules of narrative #but like. man! #i didn’t even read the iliad till a couple years ago #and so much of it is sooooo fucking boring #it does not slap nearly as hard as the odyssey #also the actual specific inciting incident of the iliad is very literally two dudes fighting over who gets to rape someone #so like. to get all the Emotions out of it #even beyond engaging with its view of violence which is like. conflicted but also definitely into it on certain levels #you have to just like kind of roll with the fact that this is all happening in a world where women aren’t super duper seen as human beings #which. you know. i’m not saying you should. #but. the stuff in it that’s good…. yeah i basically haven’t stopped thinking about it since