What was the point of reading the Iliad (in translation) if not for the plot?

What was the point of reading the Iliad (in translation) if not for the plot?

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imagery

Elaborate?

>he fell for the 'only plebs read for the plot' meme

You sound like the kind of person who would read the myth of Persephone and come away with nothing more than "it's about a goddess who gets kidnapped and brought to hell".

There's more to a good piece of literature than just the plot and the exact phrasing.

Plus just because people on Veeky Forums call people plebs for reading for the plot doesn't mean the plot isn't important.

Let me put it this way: If someone were to call out fantasy readers, and yet at the same time hold up the Iliad as one of my favourite works of literature, would they be a pseud? (assuming they can't read ancient Greek)

And if no: why not?
That's actually the most important part of the question

Even in translation, the Iliad still has depth below just the actual flow of the plot that genre fiction tends not to have. Plus, good translations of the Iliad are going to have literary merit anyway. A good translation can convey much of the beauty of the original work, even though it can't get all the way there.

I fell for the meme and tried to read the Iliad.

I'll now attempt my second try into the "Start With The Greeks" meme with the Odyssey.

I just hope I don't have to drop that book too. I'm buying the R.Fragles edition.

What do you mean by depth?

I suppose the best way I can describe what I mean by it, is something like "the measure of the amount of meaning conveyed on top of what is directly stated".

Historical, cultural, ethnological knowledge and ethical/æsthetic insight.

Themes
Imagery
Greek myth
Myth in general
History of literature
Historical, cultural and ethnological knowledge of the Greeks
Knowledge of Greek self-perception
Understanding of literary allusions and references made in hundreds of other books

the plot is worth the price of admission alone. the main man homer took nine years worth of heavy shit, focused it in a few days time, welded together single exploits into something panoptic, creating a wide range of distinguishable characters (not easy to do when dealing with circumstances of war). you've got the galaxy of dudes by the ships: argives, men, heroes, warriors, up against the homies at troy, which has its old men, its women, its children---and then you've got the gods watching, commenting, partaking, adding a whole other dimension and perspective. and then it all revolves around the hang-ups of one primadonna sulking on his own until he unleashes a shitstorm. it's fucking great man what's wrong with you.

You know those images are typically made in jest, right? They're supposed to be jokes. If you're taking one as an accurate description of a book, you're an idiot.

The Iliad has plenty in the way of action and adventure, I think more than enough for even the normiest of normies to be entertained.

I'm pretty sure that the image has nothing to do with what the OP is talking about except for it also being about the Iliad.

What is he complaining about then? I wish people here would just read books before making threads about them

so you gave up reading the iliad?

Troy=feminist drive
Achaeans=Masculine drive

I...don't think that's true. Especially considering Hector and Aeneis.

>tfw I'm 90% done with the illiad
>can't get my self to read the games that were thrown for patroclus
I'd rather read other books desu

I read the Odyssey in high school. Originally we had to read the Iliad but our teacher asked us if we would rather have the Odyssey since the Iliad would be kind of like OP's pic. It was good, I wasn't even that into lit back then and still enjoyed it. I'm just glad I read it in our low-tier language and not in English so that when I finally got into lit I could read it in English for the first time. And hopefully in Greek some day.

Really? I thought that part was fun. Well, the chariot race drama, at least.

youtube.com/watch?v=XD0FEcK9smE

>fun
>not heartbreaking and bleak
p poor empathy t b h

That's a good way of putting it.

Oh, spare me. Sure the funeral games as a whole were melancholic, but that particular game was overblown whining about cheating and I loved it.

Holy fuck kill yourselves, seriously fucking off yourselves, leave and never come back here.

I just finished reading the book.
Why hate me so?

I couldn't finish watching this. The man is a very poor orator and I found his comparison to gang culture to superficial at best.