SOURCE: Sinaiko, Herman L. “Reading Homer's Iliad.” In Reclaiming the Canon: Essays on Philosophy, Poetry, and History, pp. 39-55. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998.

In the following excerpt, Sinaiko details the status of the Iliad as oral poetry, documents the nature of its epithets and similes, and outlines its depiction of Achilles as “the first and greatest tragic hero.”

The Iliad is the oldest work in Western literature and the quintessential canonical classic. Still, many readers don't bother to read the poem, thinking that they already know Homer's epic account of the Trojan War: how it started with the abduction of the beautiful Helen, how Achilles, the mightiest Greek warrior, was killed by an arrow in his vulnerable heel, and how Troy was finally taken through Odysseus' stratagem of the Trojan Horse. Unfortunately, none of these events occurs in the Iliad. But I aim in these remarks...