Iliad | Essays and Criticism

  • Extra-Literary Concerns of the Iliad

    In the following essay, Michale J. Spires discusses some extra-literary concerns, including the historical and cultural importance of the Iliad, both in its own time and in the centuries that followed.

  • Homer: Iliad

    In the following excerpt, Wallace Gray looks in the Iliad for clues to Homer's attitude toward the epic hero and the Greek heroic code. Gray suggests that in the character of Achilles, Homer has created a new and different type of epic hero: one who breaks rules and promises, and even feels compassion for his enemies.

  • Death and the God-Like Hero

    In the following excerpt, Jasper Griffin looks at the ways in which the Iliad deals with a past mythic age in which the gods involved themselves in the lives of godlike, heroic humans.