The Iliad - Everyone is Whiny. Everyone is Weak.

I want to be clear: what follows is my experience reading The Iliad and not a rant about why you shouldn't read it. It's more a rant about why it isn't for me.

I've learned a lot about myself reading The Iliad. I learned my distaste for family dramas extends to dramas involving gods and goddesses. I learned I prefer the economy of words in Emily Wilson's most recent translation to other translations.  But, most importantly and controversially, I learned that The Iliad is not for me.

I believe a more appropriate title for this piece would have been The Whiny and the Petty. Perhaps a subtitle with something like: some guy steals another guy's sex slave and is pissed about it.

I am no idiot. I know this is a period piece. I understand that things were different in antiquity when this was written, or rather when this was spoken and then eventually written down.

In an effort to better understand what I would be reading, I listened to The Great Courses Plus: The Iliad of Homer, so that I would understand what I was reading.

I'm so glad I did that because, in reading this text and then discussing it with others, I found that many people shrug off things like female slavery in the name of, “oh that's just how it was done then.”

But in the course, you learned that is not the case.

You also learned from the lecture series that Homer was being a little cheeky by exemplifying the pettiness of the gods; if the gods did indeed exist, he wanted to show people they're not moral absolutes. I appreciate that.

This isn't a formal essay, so I'm not going to cite different passages of text showing you the things I disliked and the things I liked, but I will say that if you're a person who is sensitive to things like women being told who to sleep with, then this is not going to be a joyful read for you. It's going to be aggravating.

As someone who tends to compartmentalize really easily, I found it impossible to put away my personal feelings about the behavior of these characters and try to enjoy the story. The story offered me nothing. I had no one to cheer for. And yes, I'm including Hector. He was simply the one I disliked the least.

We don't know if Homer was one person or several people, let alone whether or not they intended for us to dislike all but one character. If the case was to show the pettiness of men and gods, then congratulations to them. Well done.

When explaining this text to others who haven't read it, I've described it as reality TV in antiquity, because that's what it felt like to me as I was reading it. A series of scenes with people who are vapid, distasteful, and shallow. Base-level humanity.

And very quickly, before all the reality TV people come at me: I'm not saying the people in reality TV are the base versions of humanity. I'm saying they are being paid to play like they are. I know all these people are also nuanced, but what they give us on TV is a caricature of a human, and I felt like I was reading that in another time.

The Iliad is amazing in that it is the oldest surviving work in Western literature. My dislike of the text does not diminish the weight of that fact.

I read this book because I am reading the entire Britannica Great Books collection, and it was the first complete text in that collection.

Typically, I don't finish books that do not resonate with me personally. I give a book a fair shot, and then I'll put it down if it isn't for me.

I didn't put this book down in this case because it is part of a reading challenge I'm doing, but I also wanted to do the uncomfortable thing. Being uncomfortable and challenging myself in this way is important to me. It's important to take yourself to the edge of your comfort and see what else is there.

Of course, being uncomfortable and challenging yourself in different ways will vary from person to person. In this context, I'm only speaking of reading.

While I did not enjoy reading this, I did come away learning a few things about my likes and dislikes in literature. I also found myself in discussions with others who have read the text, solidifying certain moral positions and believing that they are absolute, which is interesting and scary (because absolutism is terrifying).

Based on my response to this work, I'm not very excited about reading the next few books in the Britannica Great Books collection. I don't know that this period of writing is for me personally. I know that it wasn't written for a female reader in 2026, but that doesn't mean I can't read it and possibly enjoy it.

Next, I'll be reading the Odyssey, and it's timely since the movie just came out.

I read The Odyssey in high school, so I have some understanding of what I'm in for. I remember enjoying it somewhat, but not loving it, so I'm looking forward to seeing how my adult brain takes to it.

Normally, at the end of a piece like this, the writer would either recommend or not recommend reading the work that they've been picking apart, so I'm going to say this: The Iliad might be for you if you enjoy dramas and unlikable characters. If you plan to watch and/or read The Odyssey, I think you should read The Iliad first so you can better understand the characters in The Odyssey.

Before absorbing the opinions of another, you should certainly attempt to read this work and see how you respond to it. That's the beauty of literature in general. Each person gets a different experience out of reading the work. Perhaps you can glean something from this work that was unattainable to me. You will not know until you try.