#classic literature

by Homer

What’s it about?

It’s about a month in the final year of battle in the ten-year siege of Troy. Ilion is the old word for Troy, and Iliad means “thing about Ilion”.

So it’s just a bunch of guys fighting?

Essentially, yes, in the same way that the Lord of the Rings is just two little guys throwing a ring into a mountain. In other words, if you’ve read Game Of Thrones and you still think that the Iliad has too much fighting in it, you should probably present yourself to the relevant authorities at first light.

Where’s the Wooden Horse? I’m pretty sure there’s a Wooden Horse in there somewhere.

That’s not a part of the Iliad. The remit of the Iliad is very specific and outlined in the first sentence: The anger of Achilles. Achilles is disrespected in front of his friends, and so, in accordance with the warrior code, he takes his toys and goes home. In this case, his toys represent a massive chunk of the armed forces of Greece, which leaves their siege plans twisting in the wind.

My brother used to pull that crap when he was seven years old.

It can come across as a bit childish, but perhaps no more so than any modern war (go on, think of a war). The book as a whole is a revealing look into the psychology and motivations of warrior culture, a part of Greek history called The Mycenaean Age, which was thought to be entirely mythical before 1868, when an archaeologist called Heinrich Schliemann found the actual Troy in modern Turkey. It’s not nearly as boring as that last sentence was.

Hang on, I read this bit before, didn’t I? And why does everyone have the same adjectives attached to them every time?

The Iliad was never designed to be written down. It was designed to be recited as a poem entirely from memory. To help the poor fool memorise the 15,000 lines, there are occasional repetitions and certain form phrases. For instance, Odysseus is always “resourceful Odysseus”, dawn is always “rosy-fingered dawn” and Hera, the wife of Zeus, is always referred to as “ox-eyed Hera”, by which they probably meant to compliment her big brown eyes. There are also stretches relating to preparations for war, and so on, that are more or less copied and pasted for the purpose of relieving the speaker, who can slip into automatic pilot for a hundred lines or so.

What should I say to make people think I’ve read it?

“A highly artistic study of the themes of honour, glory, war, fate, infused with a yearning for home, from a civilisation without the psychological vocabulary needed to explicate those themes.”

What should I avoid saying when trying to convince people I’ve read it?

“The bit about the Wooden Horse is my favourite!”

Should I actually read it?

Yes. You might actually enjoy it. Think of it like superhero comics, but with fewer pictures and a more ill-defined moral core. Unless you’re the sort of person who wants to read it just so you can tell yourself you’ve read it. Then it’s going to be a nightmare. Sorry.

The phrase ‘all things that fall get broken’ truly terrifies me because I’m falling hard but unfortunately fictional characters can’t catch you

Kissing your lover in the rain > everything else

If your dark academia friend goes missing here is how to find them!

1. Make a small shrine of books, perhaps Shakespeare or the Picture of Dorian Gray, leave some tea or coffee, maybe a few jumpers if it’s cold and of course leave a copy of Dead Poets Society

2. Leave it near your local library/forrest/curiosity shop/aesthetic cafe /old building or anywhere that seems fitting to yearn

3. Wait until nightfall as they are most likely an insomniac and will most likely becone productive anywhere between 11 pm and 3 am

Hopefully your friend will emerge from their hideaway and you can safely take them home

Dark academia is the aesthetic for people who:

Had a tense emo phase that matured into dark academia

Had an unhealthy Harry Potter obsession and now hates J. K. Rowling

Played games revolving around mythical creature as a child

Was able to read at an adult level at age 8 and spent their childhood reading

I think the thing I love the most about reading is imagining what each character looks like because no matter what the description is, everyone will imagine the characters differently

Academics be like ‘I know a place’ and then take you to their favourite reading spot in the woods and lecture you on books for three hours

“When you were away from me you were still present in my art…. Of course I never let you know anything about this.”

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

grammar + ancient greek

people who have read les misérables, what’s the best translation to read in your opinion?

And I am glad, I am glad that, though only in imagination, she should think of herself as having once been happy.

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment.

My design for Justine Moritz from the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley ♥

It was very interesting researching what working women wore in the 18th century and I ended up having so much fun designing her! :) (And then redesigning her a few dozen times too!! XD )

I hope you like my little drawing of her :)

say whatever you like but being covered in the blood of your (now murdered) gay artist friend who painted your potrait which was so life like you decided to trade your soul for the beauty and youth depicted in it is the most gayest thing a man can do.

My friend literally begged me to draw fanart for Master and Margarita