The Pity of Achilles

The Pity of Achilles

Author: Jinyo Kim

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9780847686216

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In The Pity of Achilleus, Jinyo Kim examines how the major themes of the Iliad--Achilleus' 'wrath, ' heroic values such as honor and glory, and human mortality and suffering, to mention the most widely recognized--are connected to each other in a way that reveals the poem's structural coherence and unity. Kim asks whether Achilleus' pity toward Priam at the poem's close is, as is widely believed, a poetic deus ex machina. In other words, is the conception of Achilleus' pity an expression of a 'later' and 'more civilized' era, as a way of 'correcting' the warlike savagery that is an undeniable and significant part of the poem? She concludes, rather, that Achilleus' final reconciliation with the old king of Troy-- his 'enemy' according to the warrior ethos in the Iliad-- represents the integral and ultimate resolution of the theme of Achilleus' 'wrath' that is announced in the poem's opening lines. This book will be valuable for students and scholars of classical literature and classical civilization.


The Shield of Achilles

The Shield of Achilles

Author: W. H. Auden

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2024-05-07

Total Pages: 137

ISBN-13: 0691256586

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Back in print for the first time in decades, Auden’s National Book Award–winning poetry collection, in a critical edition that introduces it to a new generation of readers The Shield of Achilles, which won the National Book Award in 1956, may well be W. H. Auden’s most important, intricately designed, and unified book of poetry. In addition to its famous title poem, which reimagines Achilles’s shield for the modern age, when war and heroism have changed beyond recognition, the book also includes two sequences—“Bucolics” and “Horae Canonicae”—that Auden believed to be among his most significant work. Featuring an authoritative text and an introduction and notes by Alan Jacobs, this volume brings Auden’s collection back into print for the first time in decades and offers the only critical edition of the work. As Jacobs writes in the introduction, Auden’s collection “is the boldest and most intellectually assured work of his career, an achievement that has not been sufficiently acknowledged.” Describing the book’s formal qualities and careful structure, Jacobs shows why The Shield of Achilles should be seen as one of Auden’s most central poetic statements—a richly imaginative, beautifully envisioned account of what it means to live, as human beings do, simultaneously in nature and in history.


Homer on the Gods and Human Virtue

Homer on the Gods and Human Virtue

Author: Peter J. Ahrensdorf

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-09-22

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0521193885

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book seeks to restore Homer to his rightful place among the principal figures in political and moral philosophy.


Homer

Homer

Author: Barbara Graziosi

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-03-28

Total Pages: 159

ISBN-13: 0191667668

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Homer's mythological tales of war and homecoming,the Iliad and the Odyssey, are widely considered to be two of the most influential works in the history of western literature. Yet their author, 'the greatest poet that ever lived' is something of a mystery. By the 6th century BCE, Homer had already become a mythical figure, and today debate continues as to whether he ever existed. In this Very Short Introduction Barbara Graziosi considers Homer's famous works, and their impact on readers throughout the centuries. She shows how the Iliad and the Odyssey benefit from a tradition of reading that spans well over two millennia, stemming from ancient scholars at the library of Alexandria, in the third and second centuries BCE, who wrote some of the first commentaries on the Homeric epics. Summaries of these scholars' notes made their way into the margins of Byzantine manuscripts; from Byzantium the annotated manuscripts travelled to Italy; and the ancient notes finally appeared in the first printed editions of Homer, eventually influencing our interpretation of Homer's work today. Along the way, Homer's works have inspired artists, writers, philosophers, musicians, playwrights, and film-makers. Exploring the main literary, historical, cultural, and archaeological issues at the heart of Homer's narratives, Graziosi analyses the enduring appeal of Homer and his iconic works. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable. This book was previously published in hardback as Homer.


The Heart of Achilles

The Heart of Achilles

Author: Graham Zanker

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 9780472084005

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Explores the moral choices and values Homer offers in his Iliad


Green on Blue

Green on Blue

Author: Elliot Ackerman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1476778566

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A "debut novel about a young Afghan orphan and the harrowing, intractable nature of war"--Amazon.com.


Homer: Iliad Book XVIII

Homer: Iliad Book XVIII

Author: Homer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-01-10

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1107067774

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Presents an edition of this outstanding book containing a clear and readable introduction, concise notes on the text and strong literary appreciation.


Homer the Preclassic

Homer the Preclassic

Author: Gregory Nagy

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2017-02-24

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0520294874

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Homer the Preclassic considers the development of the Homeric poems-in particular the Iliad and Odyssey-during the time when they were still part of the oral tradition. Gregory Nagy traces the evolution of rival “Homers” and the different versions of Homeric poetry in this pretextual period, reconstructed over a time frame extending back from the sixth century BCE to the Bronze Age. Accurate in their linguistic detail and surprising in their implications, Nagy's insights conjure the Greeks' nostalgia for the imagined “epic space” of Troy and for the resonances and distortions this mythic past provided to the various Greek constituencies for whom the Homeric poems were so central and definitive.