The Eliad of Homer
The Eliad of Homer The Eliad written in 6th century BC is an epic poem by Homer, the blind bard. Singing bards were often blind in ancient Greece. The 24 books of the Eliad have over 15,000 lines about the battles between King Agamemnon and Achilles. In the Trojan war we find that the Greek gods like Zeus and Apollo, and goddesses also have a great role to play. The rhythm of Homer’s verses resembles that of the army he describes, Hoid’ ar’ isan hosei te puri chthon pasa nemoito. “They pour along like a fire that sweeps the whole earth before it.” Alexander Pope who translated this Greek epic into English aptly says: “This fire is discerned in Virgil, but discerned as through a glass, reflected from Homer, more shining than fierce, but everywhere equal and constant: in Lucan and Statius it bursts out in sudden, short, and interrupted flashes: In Milton it glows like a furnace kept up to an uncommon ardour by the force of art: in Shakespeare it strikes before we are aware...