Svarta skepp mot Troja : Berättelsen om Iliaden (1993)

Loved it! Excellent narrative adaptation of the Iliad for younger readers. ( )

Excellent Iliad 101
Review of the paperback of Rosemary Sutcliff's (1920-1992) posthumous 1993 text-only original.

Newcomers to Homer's Iliad will likely be surprised to read that it begins with Achilles' quarrelling with Agamemnon and ends with Hector's funeral i.e. all sorts of iconic mythological fiction tropes such as the Achilles Heel and the Trojan Horse do not appear in it at all.

Rosemary Sutcliff combines all of the major sources from Greek Myths and the Aeniad with Homer's story to provide an excellent complete distillation of the Iliad story in a very readable young adult fiction edition here. It will hopefully be an excellent introduction that will encourage interested readers to further explore the original sources of a timeless epic of love and war. ( )

A poetic, accessible retelling of a brutal story. ( )

So I love the story of the Trojan War, but not this particular adaptation. I felt like the author brushed over the truly meaningful and important scenes (Achilles' death) and spent a lot of time focusing on the less important parts of the story. There was no drama to it, and there is A LOT of drama going on in The Iliad. ( )

Homer's Iliad adapted for young readers. When Paris of Troy steals Helen away from her husband King Menelaus, Menelaus and his Greek allies declare war on Troy to get Helen back. The war lasts 9 years, with key heroes rising to the occasion before getting killed off. Then Odysseus comes up with the idea of building a wooden horse and hiding Greek soldiers in it and bringing it into Troy as an offering for the goddess Athene. Never knew "The Iliad" was so violent, what with characters being speared, dragged, poisoned, stabbed!