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Salve amici!!Ok, if one wanted to take a trip inside Alexander's head (age 18-death), or "get into his skin", would one find reading "The Iliad" helpful? I started reading it last summer, and by Book Ten, I had to put it down for nightmares were hindering my nightly sleep patterns. I know I must finish reading it, knowing Alexander loved it, but, gee, the nightmares. Perhaps I am too sensitive .Cheers,Alexander's Amazon Queen

I'm sure that if someone wants to him as good as possible the Illiad is very importand. I started from other books too but then I realised that if Illiad was his loved book and we see in some his deeds that he used sometimes examples from it I have to read it. I even made some notes if this book's impact to Alexander.
I had no nightmares after reading but I think I understand Alexander little bit better now.Maciek

It is amazing that anyone can understand Alexander at all. But I had to laugh that he keeps both his dagger and his copy of the Iliad under his pillow. I guess we can no longer laugh at Richard Nixon for being influenced by Patton after all.

Actually there was no way Alexander could have kept his copy of the Iliad under his pillow - it would have been far too bulky as it was parchment rolls, plus far too valuable to risk squashing. There's a story, in Plutarch I think, that after Issus he chose a particularly splendid jewelled casket of Darius to keep his Iliad in, but this sounds suspiciously like propaganda -the contrast of the luxury-loving Perisans and the almost-ascetic Macedonians.
Susan

Of course everybody has his own some small secret and we know only about famouse peoples secrets or even their are conciled for us. I do belive that Alex had his copy (or maybe some part or symbol of Iliand like some peage) under pillow.Maciek

Ok, getting back into his *mind*...I visualize his mental processes like a kaleidoscopic-psychedelic mosaic of images/ideas that flash light beams of light; he most definetly had a *hyperactive* mind. Imagine it enhanced with the herbs he must have used to assuage his pains? While in India, as King and Companions passed the pipe.....

I have different opinion about it. I have read few opinions simmilar to Yours but about alkohol "enhancing" not herbs but it looks the same effect. I think Alexander had clear picture of what he wanted to do. Maybe from the beggining he combined few options but after sizing the Babilon I think the picture was complete. Of course his actions was based on some combination of different things like Illiad influence, historical motives (revenge for destroing the Athens or reaching the India like Semiramida) and many more... But we all bese on some expirience what we gained in the younghood and adult life so this is nothind unusuall. I think he would not make such conquers if he would be under some kind of drugs because main part of his decisions was his own not even his staff.
Maciek

Ghia sou, paidi+á!
Well...i think that reading Iliad could be helpful of course, but only to one who is able to find the roots of his culture in that book! and only an ancient greek could find this meaning on Iliad i think!
Chairete

Another foray into the Times....
This was published last week. Apologies if copyright infringed.
------------------------------------------------Sulks! Clio, old girl, tell our listeners, briefly, the story of those heroic Sulks. Those are the first words of Western literature. Though (mercifully) nobody has yet translated them like that, so far as I know. But they have been translated more often than any other work of literature, except, possibly, the Bible. They are strictly untranslatable. Every word in every language carries its individual clothing which cannot be turned precisely into a different language.
The Iliad kicks off with the key word to the story. Maynin, or Meenin if you stick to pronouncing Homer as though he were a Victorian bishop, is traditionally translated as Wrath. The word is something musty, and its current synonym is Rage. But the Homeric Greek Maynin, from a heroic culture of Shame, carries intimations of what our modern guilt culture might describe as Sulks.
The translators of Homer have tried Wrath and Rage, and even Revengeful Temper. Pope rhymed it in heroic couplets: GÇ£AchillesGÇÖ Wrath, to Greece the direful spring/ Of woes unnumberGÇÖd, heavGÇÖnly Goddess, sing!GÇ¥ With PopeGÇÖs wonderful GÇ£observationsGÇ¥, this was the first bestseller in English. Chapman turned it: GÇ£AchillesGÇÖ banefull wrath resound, O Goddesse, that imposd/ Infinite sorrowes on the Greekes, and many brave soules losd/ From breasts Heroique.GÇ¥ To modern taste this is an unpromising intro. But it so hooked the young Keats that he sat up all night reading it. And it inspired his On First Looking into ChapmanGÇÖs Homer, one of the most romantic poems in English.
Today a new translation of the Iliad is published. To be precise, as one must try to be when translating, a revision of a famous translation. Are there not already enough translations of the Iliad to suit every taste? The old book is certainly not going to feature in the BBCGÇÖs dumb-dumber-Dumbo quest for the greatest books of all time. It will be beaten by Hobbits, and probably by Harry Potter, God save the Clio. It was Ezra Pound, in rational mode, who said that just as, if you listen carefully, everything you need to hear about music is there in Bach, so all subsequent literature can be read in the Iliad. When read carefully, both Frodo Baggins and Harry Potter have roots that stretch back to Troy. GÇ£We freely own weGÇÖd give a leg if we could borrow, steal, or beg the skill old Homer used

Article from the Times, continued
---------------------------------steal, or beg the skill old Homer used to show. (He wrote the Iliad you know.)GÇ¥ Penguin Classics are the first purveyors of literature in readable English. They are relaunching their series today with a revision of E.V. RieuGÇÖs translation of the Iliad. He started with the Odyssey in 1946, and followed it up with the Iliad (1950). The translations brought the sunlight of great literature to war-darkened Europe, and spoke to millions who had never before dreamt of looking into Homer. They have never been out of print since.
So why do we need a revision now? Well, popular translations must move with the times as well as The Times. Cultural and linguistic idioms change. Research advances understanding. One generationGÇÖs wrath is another generationGÇÖs rage. The most popular current translation is risible in parts. GÇ£Achilleus caught these two at the knees of Ida.GÇ¥ GÇ£The Achaians whose wind is fury!GÇ¥ Rieu, a most courteous man, ascribed a similar courtesy to Greek heroes. He made them say GÇ£PleaseGÇ¥ and GÇ£Would you...?GÇ¥ when the Greek expresses a straight command GÇ£Do X.GÇ¥ The command form has been restored by his reviser and translator for 2003, Peter Jones. Warriors no longer wear anachronistic cuirasses or corselets, but body armour. In the Homeric context, it is to be hoped that no modern youth imagines this to bear any relation to police uniform. Rieu took the view that Homer often ascribed to gods what we would ascribe to Nature or chance. But when Homer said that the gods did something, he meant it. The unHomeric language of king, empire and modern warfare have been removed, and replaced by non-specific terms such as GÇ£leaderGÇ¥, GÇ£contingentGÇ¥, GÇ£shipGÇ¥.
Some translations try (and fail) to give a literally exact rendering of the original meaning, at the expense of the syntax, grammar, colloquialism and idiom of the language it is put into; eg, Lang, Leaf and MyersGÇÖs famous translation of the Iliad (1883). Others try to convey the spirit, sense and style of the original by finding equivalents in syntax, grammar and idiom; eg, DrydenGÇÖs Virgil (1697). Others are a free adaptation that retains the original, but considerably alters style, structure, grammar and idiom. For example, Edward FitzgeraldGÇÖs free version of Omar Khayyam and Christopher LogueGÇÖs Iliad. The new version of the grandfather of all literature is written in the language of today. It is a far, far better story

than all the James Bonds and Two Towers sensations, which are its pale Epigones GÇö undistinguished, indistinguishable descendants of the greatest.Susan

I remember reading for the first time the Iliad at the age of 7 or maybe 8. I've always liked reading (the first "real" book that I read was a copy or "Robin Hood"!) but with the "Iliad" I was possessed! I was reading it over and over again. It was transferring a boy's mind into another era, without teachers and school everyday (back then we were going 6 days per week at school-terrible!). It was all about heroes, gods and semi-gods, cunning plans, and glorious battles!
I can sincerely still remember the feeling of those days after 25 years and I'm sure that it beats Harry Potter!

Hi Susan, That is good. I liked that. I was laughing to myself and I will confide my "secret" to you because of the birthmark I have, that I no longer hide my dagger under the pillow but sleep with it above the pillow. (I am just kidding!) But it did strike my funny bone when I learned of it as I am always trying to decide whether it is a dagger, a stripe of the flag, a candle, or whatever, even the bloody guillotine!:-)

I really enjoyed your discourse. A far,far better thing, huh? I have a copy of the Iliad that I will read as soon as I finish reading Manfredi's Ends to the Earth.