by beatriceotto | Feb 12, 2019 | triologisms
Famed with good reason – see his bringing another warrior to meet his ‘dark-named destiny’. However, the most graphic and distressing spearing I recall from the Iliad is by Patroclus, Achilles’ great pal. And that’s before we let loose...
by beatriceotto | Feb 5, 2019 | triologisms
Consider the vital role of the herald before mechanical forms of broadcast, and how important the quality and strength of their voice. Here, like leaders before and for millennia after, Agamemnon relies on heralds to summon his men. Another age-old though unlamented...
by beatriceotto | Feb 5, 2019 | triologisms
The Trojan war was a Bronze Age affair, magnificently evoked in different sea-surrounded places by two books of Adam Nicolson. His Sea Room touches on the Bronze Age in a remote island off the coast of Scotland, while Why Homer Matters brings it into vivid view in...
by beatriceotto | Feb 5, 2019 | triologisms
The wild card of ancient Greek military planning was the existence and randomness of divine intervention. You never knew which god was backing your enemy, or when or how they might suddenly rouse themselves in wrath and take destructive action against you. Hence, the...
by beatriceotto | Jan 22, 2019 | triologisms
In with the gore and glory of Homer’s war-words, there are repeated expressions of sorrow at human hatred. ‘Soul-perishing’ echoes our more commonly used ‘soul-destroying’. Either way, to be avoided if possible. See other such pleas by...
by beatriceotto | Jan 22, 2019 | triologisms
Homer’s Iliad pulsates with war and violence, sometimes wrapped in glory but often shrouded as much in sorrow. Here, hostility and quarrel are portrayed as heart-breaking, or as we might say, soul-destroying. The second stretch simile is particularly a plea...
by beatriceotto | Jan 22, 2019 | triologisms
I liked these two woody similes for war and death, the first to convey the din and crash of battle, the second to describe the mortal felling of a great warrior. Homer’s stretch-similes are an exercise in holding an unfolding image in your mind until he lands...
by beatriceotto | Jan 15, 2019 | metaphors, poetry mojo, triologisms
One of the many stretch metaphors used by Homer. When you see a comma followed by ‘as …’ it can be a signal to take a good intake of breath to carry you through to the end of the image. Here it is feisty bees and quick-bending wasps who convey the...
by beatriceotto | Jan 15, 2019 | triologisms
Another term for death, the fate of Asios who, horse-proud, insisted on driving his chariot into the fray where he met a Trojan spear. See also the bestellar reviews, complete with rich quote-mosaics, of Adam Nicolson’s magnificent Why Homer Matters, and...
