MinmiTheDinominmi@sfba.social
Oct 7, 2026, 8:04 PMWe have finished the Iliad. We made it folks.
What a strange book that despite not being particularly enjoyable I do feel like I could talk about for weeks and weeks.
Replies
- MinmiTheDinominmi@sfba.socialOct 8, 2026, 2:54 AM
Ok is anyone on here into the #classics or #hellenism? Cause what is the deal with Achilles? Like, he seems to operate in a totally different social context from everyone else.
1. He’s the only man who expresses any sense of like “why would I fight in this war? My life has value”
2. When he does fight he’s fucking bonkers
3. Then he does these games where he resolves all these conflicts peacefully, makes sure everyone feels valued, which doesn’t seem like a thing anyone else sees as worth doingOr am I misreading? Totally possible. But he seems like an enigmatic figure to me, not just an angry pouting rage-aholic.
Also if there are good scholarly discussions of him as a character I would love a source or two!
scott fscott@carfree.cityOct 7, 2026, 8:30 PM@minmi so it was type 2 fun!
- MinmiTheDinominmi@sfba.socialOct 7, 2026, 8:33 PM
@scott yea very much so!
- scott fscott@carfree.cityOct 7, 2026, 9:56 PM
@minmi I haven’t read it, but I read the Odyssey as a precursor to Ulysses which I heard was modeled on it. (Very loosely it turns out) And hoo boy, it doesn’t get more type 2 fun than Ulysses 😪
- MinmiTheDinominmi@sfba.socialOct 7, 2026, 10:02 PM
@scott have to admit, I hated Ulysses and didn’t finish it. And that is *rare*.
- scott fscott@carfree.cityOct 7, 2026, 10:16 PM
@minmi how far did you get? did you have an annotated version for the obscure words?
- MinmiTheDinominmi@sfba.socialOct 7, 2026, 10:17 PM
@scott I got about halfway through. It just felt so self indulgent and also so uninterested in women as humans that I got mad at it.
- MinmiTheDinominmi@sfba.socialOct 7, 2026, 10:18 PM
@scott I mean, did the Iliad regularly measure women’s worth in oxen? Yes. Somehow still felt less misogynistic 😅
- scott fscott@carfree.cityOct 7, 2026, 10:25 PM
@minmi that's fair! It didn't register as authorial sympathy for characters' misogynistic views for me, but maybe I was too worn out running to the dictionary to notice.
- MinmiTheDinominmi@sfba.socialOct 7, 2026, 10:28 PM
@scott 😂 I read it in college and it’s also possible I just didn’t care enough to kind of reflect on the underlying truth there.
- MinmiTheDinominmi@sfba.socialOct 7, 2026, 10:28 PM
@scott did you end up glad you read it?
- scott fscott@carfree.cityOct 7, 2026, 10:40 PM
@minmi I'd say so. It was six years ago, and I was just thinking about a re-read. On Monday I re-read the opening scene and it felt completely different now that I understood enough of the references to move through it briskly, rather than pause to look up every other sentence on https://joyceproject.com