Originally Posted by
prendrelemick
I think it is the Illiad's uncompromising directness - or perhaps crudeness - that appeals. It is so visceral. No literary device gets between you and the experience. Each death is right there in your face. Treating the combatants as individuals, for example, with family and back story rather than mere narrative fodder is very effective in this. As Stalin said, a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic. So tragedy builds on tragedy, one doomed man after another faces his fate, and becomes renowned for a short minute or two. The Odyssey may be "the first Western novel worth reading" (according to T E Lawrence), but it doesn't give you the same emotional kick.