Main content

The Iliad

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the story of a crucial 40 days in the 10-year battle for Troy, framed by Achilles' anger first at his leader Agamenmon and then at his enemy Hector.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great epic poem attributed to Homer, telling the story of an intense episode in the Trojan War. It is framed by the wrath of the Greek hero Achilles, insulted by his leader Agamemnon and withdrawing from the battle that continued to rage, only returning when his close friend Patroclus is killed by the Trojan hero Hector. Achilles turns his anger from Agamemnon to Hector and the fated destruction of Troy comes ever closer.

With

Edith Hall
Professor of Classics at King's College London

Barbara Graziosi
Professor of Classics at Princeton University

And

Paul Cartledge
A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture at Clare College, Cambridge

Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Available now

48 minutes

Last on

Thu 13 Sep 2018 21:30

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

READING LIST:

Jonathan S. Burgess, Homer (I.B.Tauris, 2014)

C. Emlyn-Jones, L. Hardwick and J. Purkis (eds), Homer: Readings and Images (Open University/Duckworth, 1992)

Robert Fowler (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Homer (Cambridge University Press, 2004)

Barbara Graziosi, Homer (Oxford University Press, 2016)

Jasper Griffin, Homer on Life and Death (Oxford University Press, 1983)

Homer (trans. Robert Fagles), The Iliad (Penguin, 1992)

James M. Redfield, Nature and Culture in the Iliad: The Tragedy of Hector (Duke University Press, 1994)

Seth L. Schein, The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer鈥檚 Iliad (University of California Press, 1992)

Jenny Strauss Clay, Homer's Trojan Theater: Space, Vision and Memory in the Iliad(Cambridge University Press, 2011)

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Melvyn Bragg
Interviewed Guest Edith Hall
Interviewed Guest Paul Cartledge
Interviewed Guest Barbara Graziosi
Producer Simon Tillotson

Broadcasts

  • Thu 13 Sep 2018 09:00
  • Thu 13 Sep 2018 21:30

Featured in...

In Our Time podcasts

Download programmes from the huge In Our Time archive.

The In Our Time Listeners' Top 10

If you鈥檙e new to In Our Time, this is a good place to start.

Arts and Ideas podcast

Download the best of Radio 3's Free Thinking programme.

Podcast