What Homer’s Iliad can tell us about worship and war

Great article. Love and adultery, obedience and authority, courage and cowardice, honor and dishonor, reverence and sacrilege, battlefield custom and war crimes are all some of the great themes of the Illiad. The scene with Achilles and Priam is perhaps the greatest in all of literature. Love and hatred displayed with excessive pride shows us the paradox of war. The weeping and regret of Achilles demonstrates the mental state of the warrior in much the same way as modern warriors with PTSD demonstrate. The forgiveness of Priam demonstrates the reconciliation necessary for all. Thanks for the excellent read. It definitely gets one thinking.

The “formalist” in me then and now can still appreciate Iliad and all that Sgt David Reynolds so eloquently stated. But, I found myself thinking as I was reading the article about how we record and tell our stories of war in these times. I wondered, too, what (perhaps if) a modenized Iliad might look like? Was reading Wilfred Owens a few days ago—“Dulce et decorum est”—which no doubt has altered my view.
Thanks for posting the article PO1 Tony Holland.

Great share Tony.