Homer's The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson discussion

This thread is for discussion of Book 4 of The Iliad.

Lots of goading going on in this one, but also lots of poetry.

My favorite was probably line 160, where the blood running down Agamemnon's leg is compared to spilling dye on treasured white ivory.

Also this:
“Screams of men and cries of triumph breaking in one breath,
fighters killing, fighters killed, and the ground streamed blood.
swirling into a valley, hurl their great waters together,
flash floods from the wellsprings plunging down in a gorge
and miles away in the hills a shepherd hears the thunder--
so from the grinding armies broke the cries and crash of war.”

Kathleen quoted from Book 4 of the Iliad: "Screams of men and cries of triumph breaking in one breath, fighters killing, fighters killed, and the ground streamed blood...."

And I read the morning news:

"KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 95 people were killed and more than 150 were wounded on Saturday when an ambulance packed with explosives was detonated in central Kabul, officials said.

"The explosion was the third high-profile attack in Afghanistan in a week, and the deadliest this year, highlighting the fragile security situation in the country, more than 16 years after a U.S. invasion ousted the Taliban from power.

"The ambulance made it past a checkpoint in a heavily secured area near the capital’s Sadarat Square before being stopped at a second checkpoint, where it exploded, Basir Mujahid, a spokesman for Kabul Police said. It was lunchtime and many people were in the street.

“'Most of the victims are civilians,' Mujahid said. 'It was a terrible attack that killed women, children, shopkeepers and visitors to the area.'

"Dejan Panic, a coordinator with the NGO Emergency, which operates a nearby hospital that treated victims, described the scene as 'a massacre.'"

More: https://www.stripes.com/news/suicide-...