Homer's The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson discussion

This thread is for discussion of Book 18 of The Iliad.

I love this book. It's my favorite so far, beginning with the naming of the sea nymphs:
"...Glitter, blossoming Spray and the swells' Embrace, Fair-Isle and shadowy Cavern, Mist and Spindrift ...."

Then on to the grief of Achilles, the drama of Patroclus' body, and especially the making of Achilles' shield:
"And first Hephaestus makes a great and massive shield,
blazoning well-wrought emblems all across its surface …
There he made the earth and there the sky and the sea
and the inexhaustible blazing sun and the moon rounding full
and there the constellations, all that crown the heavens ..."

This is a beautiful section. The details of the shield tell so many tales.

Caroline Alexander has some beautiful interpretations of Achilles' shield in The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War:

"“ ‘And I wish that I could hide him away from death and its sorrow’”: from Hephaistos’ inspired hammer emerge all those things that he knows he cannot give Achilles. Achilles’ new shield, like his other divine gifts—the armor, the spear, and the horses he inherited from his father—once again serves less to protect him than to highlight his mortality. The new shield Achilles will bear before him into war underscores the enormity of all he is to lose—which is all of life."

Alexander, Caroline. The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War (p. 157). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

That is beautiful, Kris. I love that idea of highlighting his mortality. Sounds like a wonderful text. Is it really endless what can be mined from these stories? Sure seems that way. :-)

Thanks Kris. I hadn't thought of the shield in quite that way, but it's perfect and it fits with the view of the entire epic. Loss is everywhere; even in the midst of victory, the victors are aware they will pay a price (whether Trojan or Achaen).