When John Keats first read Chapman’s translation of the epics of "deep-brow’d Homer," he was so overwhelmed, so overcome with the joy of discovery, that he compared his experience to finding "a new planet."
This course makes it vividly clear why, after almost 3,000 years, the Iliad remains among the greatest adventure stories ever told, as well as one of the most compelling meditations on the human condition.
These lectures provide careful, detailed examinations of the most important episodes in the Iliad. They also address various critical and interpretative issues and give background information on the cultural assumptions contained in Homer’s epic.