Logue’s rendering of Homer is powerful because he makes it immediate, either by transporting you through sheer force of description to the battlefield before Troy, or by air-lifting you in an instant from a scene three thousand years ago to something that happened yesterday, or last century. Here he likens Ajax to Rommel after Alamein.  I also like how he conveys the strength of Ajax’s voice as projecting over five acres.
See also the bestellar reviews, complete with rich quote-mosaics, of Adam Nicolson’s magnificent Why Homer Matters and Logue’s War Music, a muscular rendition of several books of the Iliad.Â
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‘And on the next, Ajax,
Grim underneath his tan as Rommel after ‘Alamein,
Summoned the army to the common sand,
Raised his five-acre voice, and said…’
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Source: Christopher Logue, War Music: An account of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer’s Iliad, London: Faber and Faber, 2001, p. 13
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