The Iliad Quotes

“Again, Homer has clarified the world-view of his tradition, to stress that, when life is gone, it is gone for ever. The paradoxical result is that, precisely by widening the chasm between mortal and immortal, Homer exalts the dignity and responsibility of human beings, placed between god and beast and potentially sharing the natures of both. We may attain divine achievements, with the aid of the gods themselves, but not a divine existence. The here and now, for all the prevalence of adversity over happiness, is the only life we have, and we must make the best of it.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary, Volume 4: Books 13-16

“It is a remarkable paradox that nearly every important event in the Iliad is the doing of a god, and that one can give a clear account of the poem's entire action with no reference to the gods at all.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary, Volume 4: Books 13-16

“These ways of looking at events were clearly part of common belief, but Homer exploits them for literary effect; both ineluctable fate and unpredictable divine intervention reinforce the sense of man as a plaything at the mercy of mightier powers. But the conclusion drawn from this is far from a negative or passive one; we must win honour within the limits set for us by our existence within a cosmos which is basically well-ordered, however hard that order may be to discern. When Odysseus is reduced to beggary, he does not lower his moral standards; when Akhilleus faces the inevitability of death, he is still determined to die gloriously. Homer adapts for his own poetic and moral ends ways of thinking which are potentially contradictory, refining the myths and world-view of his tradition. All his art is mobilized to stress the need for intelligence, courage and moral responsibility in the face of a dangerous universe, wherein mankind has an insignificant and yet paramount role. It is this attitude which makes the Homeric poems so sublimely and archetypally humane.”
― Geoffrey S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary, Volume 4: Books 13-16