The Iliad

In this war poem Homer tells the story of Achilles and his wrath before the walls of besieged Troy.

One of the greatest literary works of all time. Personally in my mind I always compared it to Homer's other great work the Odyssey, however The Iliad is by far my favorite even among other epic works (e.g. Beowulf, The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Aeneid, Shahnameh - maybe not La Poema de Mio Cid or the Song of Roland but certainly among many others - yes I like epics). The story has all the markings of a great adventure movie or tv series in equal measure as Homer used these marketing tools, violence and "romance"way ahead of others it seems. Many people often do characterize it as violent and sexist, however through the trials and tribulations of the mortal and immortal heroes in this work we can see that even after 3000 years the themes and values of this work are still prevalent in our modern times and our societies and that alone should tell us something. As far as the Wordworth edition in particular is concerned. even though there are other translations in English I always like to go back to this one as I like how this edition balances the fidelity and literary joy of the work and that is why Chapman's translation still remains popular. Not to mention that this version at this price is value for money. On an epic scale