“The true hero, the true subject, the center of the Iliad is force,” wrote Simone Weil. And yet, she said that Homer’s poem is “the purest and loveliest of mirrors.” How can a poem that revels in the visceral description of death and that chronicles the destruction of a great city be so pure and lovely? Jonathan and Ryan take a look into this epic mirror and into Weil’s justly famous essay on it.
Simone Weil’s The Iliad, or the Poem of Force (free English translation): http://biblio3.url.edu.gt/SinParedes/08/Weil-Poem-LM.pdf
Simone Weil’s The Iliad, or the Poem of Force (bilingual French-English critical edition): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780820463612
Homer’s Iliad: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780374529055
Aeschylus' Oresteia: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780140443332
Sophocles' Theban Plays: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780156027649
Ovid’s Metamorphoses: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780156001267
Virgil’s Aeneid: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780553210415
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Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com