Aching for the Iliad on Super Bowl Sunday

Hope you enjoy the Super Bowl (or not as the case may be).

And whether or not you believe there is something to the Hector-Achilles-like duel between Brady and Manning, you might enjoy this tidbit from the New York Times “1-page” magazine (page 9 of the print magazine).

Madeline Miller is very very briefly interviewed about her recent novel “The Song of Achilles”, which re-imagines the Iliad as a love story between Achilles and Patroclus. I haven’t read her novel so I can’t comment on it, but I’m always glad to see the Iliad in popular culture. This 2,500+ year old story continues to resonate – as Reading Odyssey members well know from their current reading of the Iliad.

We will be getting questions out to the many reading groups tomorrow or Tuesday in advance of the next meetings around the country Monday, February 13 discussing Iliad Books 9 – 16.

Go Greeks (I mean Giants),

Phil 

I Can’t Quit You, Achilles
By Maud Newton

 

“I stole it from Plato!” Madeline Miller jokes, when asked how she came to interpret the “Iliad” as a love story between Achilles, the half-god warrior, and Patroclus, whose death he insists on avenging even if doing so ensures his own. Her novel, “The Song of Achilles,” is drenched with longing not seen since “Brokeback Mountain,” and, as the writer Donna Tartt says, conjures the goddess Thetis with “the true savagery and chill of antiquity.”

via nytimes.com

05. February 2012 by Phil Terry
Categories: Commentary, Homer-Iliad | Comments Off on Aching for the Iliad on Super Bowl Sunday