September 30, 2008
homer as history
NEARLY 3,000 YEARS after the death of the Greek poet Homer, his epic tales of the war for Troy and its aftermath remain deeply woven into the fabric of our culture. These stories of pride and rage, massacre and homecoming have been translated and republished over millennia. Even people who have never read a word of "The Iliad" or "The Odyssey" know the phrases they have bequeathed to us - the Trojan horse, the Achilles heel, the face that launched a thousand ships.Today we still turn to Homer's epics not only as sources of ancient wisdom and wrenchingly powerful poetry, but also as genuinely popular entertainments. Recent translations of "The Iliad" and "Odyssey" have shared the best-seller lists with Grisham and King. "The Odyssey" has inspired works from James Joyce's "Ulysses" to a George Clooney movie, and an adaptation of "The Iliad" recently earned more than $100 million in the form of Wolfgang Petersen's "Troy" - a summer blockbuster starring Brad Pitt as an improbable Achilles.
The ancient Greeks, however, believed that Homer's epics were something more than fiction: They thought the poems chronicled a real war, and reflected the authentic struggles of their ancestors.
more from Boston Globe Ideas here.
Posted by Morgan Meis at 10:26 AM | Permalink






Comments
Brad Pitt as an improbable Achilles.
It's been said before, but Brad Pitt is not an improbable Achilles, he's a perfect Achilles. He's physically perfect, pouty, and prone to celebrity hissy-fits. What more could you want? The only famous person more suited to be Achilles is Manny Ramirez, and he can't act (so far as we know).
Posted by: ffoolishmortal | Oct 1, 2008 12:46:47 AM
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