Iliad: Book Three

This volume is the third of a projected series of twenty-four, each to contain an illustrated version of my translation of one of the books of Homer’s Iliad. These should appear at irregular intervals over a couple of years, starting in March/April 2016. The Gods may decide otherwise, but that at least is my intention. 


In this book we meet for the first time with the violence and sex that lies at the heart of the poem. Iliad is awash with violence which is made brutally explicit, whereas the sex is generally rather less explicit. There is nevertheless a persistent undercurrent of sex starting in the very first book, where the conflict between Agamemnon and Akhilleus is centred on their respective sexual partners, Khryseis and Briseis. In this book the sex becomes explicit and is intended to juxtapose Helen’s two partners, Menelaos and Alexandros (aka Paris), in seriously contrasted situations.