The Iliad by Homer

Ho trovato molto bello - appassionato, appassionante, colto - l'articolo di Edward Luttwak sul perché continuaiamo a leggere l'Iliade (più che l'Odissea). Ecco alcune delle ragioni che Luttwak propone: "One reason, obviously, is that had Homer existed (in spite of his deconstruction by Wolf, and in spite of his substitution by Parry/Lord), he would have been the star pupil of any creative writing course. They teach a variety of tricks and techniques for different kinds of writing, but Homer uses absolutely all of them: the Iliad begins in media res with the action underway, and instead of a tiresome summary of the first nine years of the war, necessary context is supplied by scattered flashbacks ... On top of that, there are the production values, as Hollywood calls them: lots of special effects ranging from the habitual falling-star incandescence of the gods to the extraordinary revolt of the river god Scamander against Achilles ... it offers a vision of uncompromised human dignity which was very rare indeed over much of human history ... Another reason for reading the Iliad is the fighting, although the battles do not even start until Book 4." lrb.