Re-reading the Iliad
So my antagonists for the Cretan thing are early Homeric-era Greeks. It seemed sensible to re-read the Iliad for background. I remember loving the Odyssey in childhood, but being a little meh about the Iliad. However, a lifetime of gender studies, feminism, anthropology and introspection has left me practically unable to read it at all. My God what a bunch of entitled jerks the characters are! Why am I supposed to care? Let Zeus fucking raze the beaches and the city of Troy alike with lightning storms and let them all burn. (You can save Patroclus and Odysseus first though.)
Sheesh. These are our heroes?
I wonder if I dare re-read the Odyssey. I liked it at the time because it had monsters, and both Odysseus and Penelope were clever. That surely can’t have changed.
I’ve never read either, but I did – ‘enjoy’ isn’t quite the right word given some of the events but it’s the closest I can think of – Marion Zimmer Bradley’s take on the story of Troy in The Firebrand
I did actually enjoy ‘War Music’ by Christopher Logue which is a retelling of the Iliad without all the unnecessary adulation. That was quite stirring 🙂 And the Odyssey is worth reading for the Cyclops alone, as well as Penelope and Telemachus having to deal with their unwanted house guests. I haven’t tried The Firebrand, but I didn’t manage to get on with her Arthurian stories so the combination of an author I’m not fond of with a story I’m not fond of sounds daunting. OTOH, I’m considerably more in sympathy with Goddess type retellings these days than when I last tried reading her stuff.
Oooh, not heard of War Music, I’ll go look that up!
Feel I ought to have provided the disclaimer that I was 14 when I read The Firebrand though!