The Illiad

I've finally made it around to posting on the next book (the first "Great Book"): the Illiad.

There are a good number of interesting things to understand from this book, but I think the chief of them, and the one under which most of the others fall, is the Greekness of it. It is a wonderful window into the Greek mentality, showing the utter difference between their mind and ours in everything from the value of life to views on glory and honor and the purpose of sacrifice. I will get to most of these later as they come up in the book.

However, I want to start with a point of some similarity. Before I get to that though, I have to say this.

Troy is a bad movie. It makes the Illiad an American action movie, ruins nearly all the characters, and strips the story of any Greek elements that it once had.

Right. Now that that's out of the way...

5.3 "This will be best, for the gods ever hear the prayers of him who has obeyed them." -Achilles

This made me think of James 5:16 about the effective prayer of a righteous man. I realize that there are significant differences, especially once you realize that obeying Greek gods often means buying their favor with sacrifices. It still strikes me as an interesting similarity that the righteous man is heard by God.

The other interesting part about this quotation is that Achilles said it. Achilles is often portrayed as a completely arrogant and self centered individual. This statement, so early in the story, shows both that he is pious and that he has good judgment. Perhaps he isn't the two dimensional character that David Benioff wants him to be.