Addison's Blog

when I first read it, in high school, I HATED the Iliad. Hated it. And Im seeing that my perspective made me look at whether the text seemed to be saying achilles’s actions were “right” or “wrong,” whether we were supposed to admire him or learn from his mistakes—and I was frustrated, because Achilles was a heroic figure, but also portrayed as savage, irrational, and cruel. But the point isn’t that Achilles is good or that Achilles is bad, it’s that Achilles is human

The characters in the Iliad behave irrationally because that’s what the trauma of combat does. Of course, the Greeks weren’t thinking about it in terms of “trauma.” This story simply conveys what the Greeks understood about the experience of war (how could it not?) and the thesis of this book is that it’s devastatingly accurate.

This book is glued to the actual text of the Iliad throughout; there are very few reaches and interpretations. The chapters are mostly composed of side-by-side comparisons between testimonies of Vietnam War veterans and passages from Homer’s epic. It’s incredibly compelling.

Achilles’s character arc describes combat trauma; he feels betrayed by those in authority, he stops caring about anyone except the people immediately around him, he loses someone close to him and blames himself, and he goes berserk and commits atrocities when previously he possessed honor.

But the Greeks didn’t have the concept of “combat trauma,” and I don’t think they were thinking of it like us either. We don’t sympathize with soldiers who have committed war crimes and are traumatized because the trauma does not “justify” the crime, because they are not innocent.

0° Celsius gets you ice. 100° Celsius gets you tea.

(the first person has text over them that says "being fat and wanting a girlfriend")

First person: "See what's behind this door..!"

(Door has text over it that says "fat girls" while The Toccata and Fugue in D minor plays in the background)

First person: "Noo, is there a bett-"

Second person: " Yo it's funny that there's an entire demographic, of petite women who love bigger men. But because you've just ousted yourself, as a cunt, it's never gonna happen for you mate. You're really out here body shaming, all these beautiful shawties, big body Bugatti (kiss noise), exquisite; but you're built like a less cool Bling Bling Boy from Johnny Test. Make it make sense mate. It doesn't- it really doesn't. Could've kept your mouth shut. But you had to say something. And you even went so far as to put it on the internet. And you thought that was a good idea because-? Please, take yourself elsewhere. Sincerely the entire fucking human race."