
The Shield of Achilles (1952) - hprotagonist
https://poets.org/poem/shield-achilles
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CalChris
Virgil also creates a shield symbolizing Rome's history in the Iliadic second
half Book VIII of the _Aeneid_. Not that many people read the second half of
the _Aeneid_ because it's just not as good as the first half. A lot of classes
leave it out. The first half is Virgil's adaption of the _Odyssey_ and is a
lot of fun. But like _Romeo and Juliet_ after Mercutio gets killed off, once
Dido gets lit (literally), the _Aeneid_ gets boring fast. Like Mercutio, she's
the best character.

The poem itself is Auden's 1952 reworking with the Cold War and nuclear
annihilation as an implicit backdrop. It reminded me of Simon Weil's _Iliad or
the Poem of Force_.

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huudhhdhd
The burning of dido is certainly memorable but it's rather petty logic to say
the second half is bad. It contains much of the interesting criticism of the
Roman empire to be. And Aeneid, of course, is by far the most interesting
character.

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harryposner
For comparison, the relevant excerpt from the Iliad (Fagles translation):
[https://home.ubalt.edu/ntygfit/ai_01_pursuing_fame/ai_01_tel...](https://home.ubalt.edu/ntygfit/ai_01_pursuing_fame/ai_01_tell/iliad_18_fagles483.htm)

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doitLP
You beat me to it! For those who haven’t read The Iliad, and prefer
audiobooks, check out the Robert Fagles’ version voiced by Derek Jacobi.

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lucidstack
Thank you for this comment! As someone who fell in love with Derek Jacobi's
voice since recently watching Kenneth Branagh's Henry V (my favourite opening
ever), that's definitely something for me!

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dforrestwilson
One of my favorite write-ups that I have read about Achilles posited that he
had PTSD.

This really captures that imho.

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plants
If you are familiar with the Iliad, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to say
that every man in the Trojan War probably had PTSD. It's one of the most
unrelentingly brutal books I've ever read

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asark
Whatever the other qualities one may assign to _300_ , it's the most accurate
depiction of the Iliad's action I've seen (yes I know it's not the story of
the Iliad). The action portions of the text are basically a series of quick
close-ups of guys getting stabbed in the chest by spears, with the occasional
bad-ass slow-mo thing or 1v1 fight. Lots and lots of it.

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gdubs
I second this. The Iliad begins at a very cinematic pace that is very
reminiscent of _300_. The battle depictions – let's face it, the majority of
the book – are relentlessly brutal.

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phy6
I was really hoping for this to be computer generated.

