The War That Killed Achilles [Paperback]

When I originally saw this volume, my first reaction was: 'Oh, no! Not another book about Homer's `Iliad' ...' but the thematic pulse is as outlined on the inside of the front cover: 'Caroline Alexander's extraordinary book is not about any of the rational concerns that have occupied classicists for centuries. Its focus is both simpler and more radical' [...]; this book is about what the `Iliad' says of war'.

Basically, it is a concordance to the `Iliad', - specifically Richmond Lattimore's well-loved 1951 translation. The clear lucid writing is good enough to make one ignore the American spellings, and Alexander's apercus draw on both ancient and modern history as well as the textual sources. Although it's traditionally said Homer was blind, from the visually intense descriptions running through the epic, and the images the poet employs, this is unlikely: the high price of `kleos' (glory or immortal fame) is iterated and reiterated. Despite the Olympian gods overseeing the conflict at Troy, men die - 'the mortality of the Homeric warrior is never compromised' (p. 67), - bar the case of the Trojan Aineias (Virgil's Aeneas) who, having suffered a severely dislocated hip in Book 5 is still battling on in Bk. 20, which is medically impossible. (Rome would have had to find itself another foundation myth if Homer had killed off Aeneas, but, interestingly, Alexander mentions recent research (2007) which found Etruscan DNA originating from Anatolia.)

There is a clear distinction between history and poetry: while the former describes what took place, the latter sees what might be expressed as events which are `sub specie aeternitatis'. The book rehabilitates the fictional character of Achilles, who has suffered at the hands of writers down the ages, e.g., Wm. Shakespeare's portrait depicted the Greek hero in an unflattering light - petulant and pathologically arrogant - but Alexander's study is less of a two-dimensional cardboard cut-out. Like Homer, she teases out the real psychological impact of war and loss on human emotions, conscience and common decency. Her reading of Achilles, reflected in that of her hero, 'demonstrates profound knowledge of the disposition of men's souls, including his own' (p. 210). One thing the work highlights is that scholarly classical research can detach one from human affairs, and in the places where Alexander sees the 'Iliad' in the light of other ME wars, Iraq, post-combat stress and total futility she manages to dent, if not actually deflate, some of the loftier academic Oxbridge views regarding Homer's work.

The notes to the text are exhaustive, though never tedious (no small feat!) Despite the lack of a formal bibliography all the sources are well-documented, plus there is a comprehensive list of further recommended primary and secondary readings.

I was puzzled by Faber and Faber classifying it as a junior title and, having contacted the publishers' editorial department, was informed the categorization's the result of a system error which was proving difficult to erase. The book's aimed at adults and was never intended as a children's book, although Amazon list the title in their current 40% reduction in children's section. ... How on earth did F&F make an error like this?! However, 'The War that Killed Achilles' is an exceptional book, and definitely one for the Homeric shelf.

There has probably been more written about Homer than any writer other than Shakespeare. Yet Caroline Alexander manages to bring a fresh and invigorating perspective to a reading of The Iliad and, in particular to the character and dramatic place of its hero, Achilles. While not classics trained, I am moved by Homer's great works and their thrilling language and I found myself thinking about the themes and personalities of The Iliad in a new way. In particular, Alexander's focus is on Homer's radical portrayal of war. As she takes us through Homer's gripping story, covering a few weeks of the decade long campaign against the Trojans, she convinces us that rather than being the glorification and romanticisation transmitted to Public Schoolboys (yes, mostly boys) over many generations, The Iliad is really a stark and shockingly graphic diatribe about the stupidity and waste of war. She reminds us just how much Achilles was actually anti-establishment, how contemptuous he was of the hierarchy - his lord Agamemnon in particular - and how pointless and unjustified he thought the war. Readable as it is, her work is clearly deeply researched scholarship, not coffee table gloss. She reminds us that the stupidity of humans is only surpassed by the infantile irresponsibility of the Gods, in all their bloody playground bickering. My only quibble is that her attempt to make parallels with accounts of modern warfare feels forced and thinly supported, in contrast with the rest of her argument. I strongly recommend this book - if you love Homer, you can only gain from her clear insight; if you have never read The Iliad, this will make you want to go out and buy it.

An ex RSM I knew had a mug he always drank his tea from. Unlike my RSM friend, it was a mug of few words: on it was written "Be the best" and "The Army". In the 8th century BC Homer described an army with the same motto. But whereas the British Army seeks superiority in comparison with other armies, the Homeric hero sought to be the best of his fellow warriors - even if it killed him, or them. Nestor tells Agamemnon he's the best, because he rules more men - and that Achilles is also best because he's the best fighter. The audience is not fooled by this heroic attempt at compromise. We know Achilles is better than Agamemnon, Ajax, Odysseus - and of course Hector. And the Iliad's purpose is to show this: the best man is willful, stubborn, self-absorbed, arrogant - but if he's really the best it doesn't matter. Arrogance is only unacceptable in lesser spirits. Mohammed Ali (compared brilliantly to Achilles by the author) was excused everything because he really was the greatest - just as he claimed.

Caroline Alexander doesn't refer to Simone Weil's "The Iliad, the poem of power". But like Weil, she realises that the poem is a condemnation of war and and all that it brings. (So often Homer includes a sort of hypertext link, where we "jump" from the battlefield into a peaceful scene of everyday life.) The Trojan War was not something which the gods dreamed up so that heroes could have a chance to show their courage in a suitable arena (as Euripides suggested - along with the more realistic idea that it was to ease the population problem!), but it is the most terrible thing that men can find themselves entangled in. And there is no glory, least of all for Achilles - only death. And this is the strength of the book in question - while retelling the Iliad in a mixture of her own words and Homer's(in her own decent translation), she never loses focus on what the poem is about. Her last chapter, where she reviews the references to Achilles in the Odyssey is brilliant. Achilles was right - once life is lost, there is nothing.

Troy, Carthage, Jerusalem, Coventry, Dresden, Nagasaki, Baghdad ... the destruction of city is among the most appalling crimes human beings can commit. And no one has shown us more vividly than Homer in the Iliad. And Caroline Alexander makes you want to read it - for the first time or the fiftieth, in translation or in the original. Maybe one person will be inspired to learn Greek by this book - that alone would justify it. It's a very fine appetiser indeed.