'Orion's Dog'

Of Ichor and War 5: Considering the Metaphysics of Homer's Iliad

Considering a reading of Books 21-22 of The Iliad.

The audio recordings of The Iliad and The Odyssey, by the same reader, provided by my dear editor, is pleasingly translated and in some witty wiles is made to rhyme in English. The most endearing aspect of this excellent reading is how the British class system is used to echo social hierarchy and human bondage across the intervening ages.

The voices of staunch heroes sound like Chinese Gordon or Lawrence of Arabia.

Kings and elders orate like Churchill or Chamberlain.

Un-warlike sons of the palace sound like Oscar Wilde, Shelly or Swinburne might be imagined—so many sissy Huxleys.

The main dialect is Victorian English.

Low down men of servant class sound explicitly Irish!