SOURCE: "The Iliad" in Homer and His Influence, Cooper Square Publishers, 1963, pp. 41-53.

In the following essay, Scott describes the Iliad as a poem about wrath and warfare and focuses on quotations from the poem that display Homer's skill at evoking emotions and profound ideas.

The first word of the Iliad is "Wrath" which reveals at once the kernel of the poem, since the Iliad does not depend on the fate of Achilles, but solely on his wrath. There are no unanswered questions concerning this wrath, its origin, its course, or its results; but the death of Achilles, the return of Helen, the end of the war seem hardly nearer than when the poem began. The historical element in the Iliad is thus but slight, even if it does concern an actual war.

The speeches of the quarrel scene and of the embassy, the pleadings of Thetis with...