Tao Te Ching
Wenceslas Hollar, 1660
Iliad
By Homer
The Iliad Ἰλιάς , the Song of Ilion (1260–1180 BCE)
The most influential book in the history of Western literature, the Iliad quickly became extremely popular during it’s own time, continued that popularity through Hellenistic and Byzantine eras, increased in popularity during the Renaissance, and continued with almost reverential respect into modern times inspiring numerous books, movies, poems, plays, and historical discussions.
Although it served as the state’s justification for war, it’s place in history may arise more from an archetypal description and advocacy for an evolutionary change in the development of civilization rather than it’s many artistic and literary merits. In prior times; rape, abduction, and the virtual enslavement of women were all common, accepted, and not thought of as any kind of big deal. Going to war because of an abduction and instigating so much suffering, death, and tragedy symbolizes a major leap in the cause of equal rights for women. Helen could be thought of as one of the first symbols of women’s liberation
Quotes from Iliad
“'Tis man's to fight, but Heaven's to give victory.”
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“A physician is worth more than several other men put together, for he can cut out arrows and spread healing herbs.”
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“Ah, no wonder the men of Troy and Argives under arms have suffered years of agony all for her, for such a woman. Beauty, terrible beauty!”
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“And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it, neither brave man nor coward, I tell you—it's born with us the day that we are born.”
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“And some day let them say of him: 'He is better by far than his father.'”
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“Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”
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24. Unnecessary Baggage
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“As is the generation of leaves, so is that of humanity.”
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“As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,
O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light,
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies.”
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“Good sir, sit still and hearken to the words of others that are thy betters. (Quoted by Socrates and the cause of his indictment.)”
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“How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!”
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63. Easy as Hard
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“If only strife could die from the lives of gods and men and anger that drives the sanest man to flare in outrage—bitter gall, sweeter than dripping streams of honey, that swarms in people's chests and blinds like smoke.”
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“In this was every art, and every charm,
To win the wisest, and the coldest warm:
Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire,
The kind deceit, the still reviving fire,
Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,
Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.”
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“Life and death are balanced as it were on the edge of a razor.”
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“Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing sooner than war.”
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“murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds.”
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“No shame in running,fleeing disaster, even in pitch darkness. Better to flee from death than feel its grip.”
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“The glorious heaven stretches itself to its widest and the multitudinous stars sparkle
Gladdening the hearts of the toil-wearied shepherds
While champing, war-wearied horses close by their chariots wait the coming of gold-throned dawn.”
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“To some the powers of bloody war belong, to some, sweet music, and the charm of song; To few, and wondrous few, has Jove assigned a wise, extensive, all-considering mind.”
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“Who dares think one thing, and another tell, my heart detests him as the gates of hell.”
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Related Lineages (1 lineages)
Quotes about Iliad (7 quotes)
“From about 1200 BCE and for 700 years until Plato's time, these two epics [the Iliad and the Odyssey] were the basis of Greek religion and morals, the chief source of history, and even of practical information... Still more remarkable, for 2500 years after Plato, the Homeric epics as primordial works of the imagination reigned over the Western world of letters. The core of humanistic scholarship, the songs of Homer resound without interruption above the changing dogmas of politics, religion, and science.”
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“How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!”
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“There in the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible–magic to make the sanest man go mad.”
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“The Iliad of Homer... one of the most deeply religious books ever composed... is an enduring statement of the living tradition of polytheism. Immortal and powerful, the gods of Homer are nonetheless strikingly human in their greed, arrogance, jealously, and promiscuity. However, far from being simplistic or childish, the gods of Homer are testimony to a profound effort to understand the meaning of life.”
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“Notwithstanding the veneration due and paid to Homer, it is very strange, yet true, that among the most learned, and the greatest admirers of antiquity, there is scarce one to be found who ever read the Iliad with that eagerness and rapture which a woman feels when she reads the Novel of Zaïda... The common part of mankind is awed with the fame of Homer, rather than struck with his beauties.”
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“Not that the form of the Iliad is perfect; the structure is loose, the narrative is sometimes contradictory or obscure, the conclusion does not conclude; nevertheless the perfection of the parts atones for the disorder of the whole, and with all its minor faults the story becomes one of the great dramas of literature, perhaps of history.”
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