I'm interested in what you think of The Quiet American, I was really really taken with it when I read it a few years ago, haven't re-read it since, though.

I usually check in once or twice a week when I have some down time and read through, sorry I don't post much.

I understand what you mean re: plot and considering I reread books, the plot does bother me as much as the influencing of my imagination... I love an author that can paint a vivid image, it gets ruined a bit if I've seen the movie.

I haven't seen either Chicago or Moulin Rouge, I suppose I should. I've seen just bits I've caught in trailers and if it's on the tv when visiting someone.

FWIW, I went to Humphry Davy School. He is a great Cornish hero. I believe his early mentor came from my home town and he himself was an habitue of it around the time my family first moved there.

According to my father, the lamp was in response to a prize offered to solve the problem of miner deaths due to exposure of the naked flame to the methane gases in the mines.
Davy won the prize but one of the other contestant was a Tyneside inventor named Jordan (spelling). Northerner miners preferred the Jordan - hence why Newcastle people are called Jordies.

I understand what you mean re: plot and considering I reread books, the plot does bother me as much as the influencing of my imagination... I love an author that can paint a vivid image, it gets ruined a bit if I've seen the movie.

I suppose if you return to a favourite book which you have read before and have seen the movie - then when reading the descriptive passages on setting or costume if you concentrate on exactly what is written carefully you may begin to reimagine. Or you can do as I do - use google and wiki when you come across a word or place you have not heard of and see the images thereand allow them to help repopulate your imagination.
Or you can focus upon other senses in the setting - most imagery and metaphors in books are visual ---> thus easily overtaken by movie imagery but try imagining the touch or smell of the setting being described.

Perhaps I should have recognised this earlier or remembered prior: but I think I have read The Quiet American before.
I am about 75% of the way through. It just occurred to me - as I was doing something else that I know what is going to happen. I do not think this is my correctly anticipating the ending.

My memory is shot.

How can I read three quarters of a book and then only realise I have walked this path before?

It is not as if it is an unmemorable book. Usually when I reread a book I have not thought I have read before it occurs to me quite quickly. Like the difference between putting a shoe on for the first time vs a shoe that you have worn before - there is an unmistakable difference.

I also found The Plague By Albert Camus on my bookshelf that I must have purchased recently that I had forgotten.

I must be getting old or something. Although, my memory can be awful at times. Maybe this is manifesting itself in another area. Or I have just a heighten awareness right now.

Intertextual reference from The Quiet American

Conversation between Fowler and Vigot: Part 3 Chapter 1 p 137 Penguin Classic ed.

"Another time. What gambler you could be, Vigot. Do you play any other game of chance?"
He smiled miserably, and for some reason I thought of that blond wife of his who was said to betray him with his junior officers.
"Oh well," he said, "there's always the biggest of all."
The Biggest?"
"'Let us weigh the gain and loss,' he quoted,'in wagering that God is, let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.'"
I quoted Pascal back at him - it was the only passage I remembered. "' Both he who chooses heads and he who chooses tails are equally at fault. They are both in the wrong. The true course is not to wager at all.'"

Blaise Pascal (French: [blɛz paskal]; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method.


Pascal's triangle


Each number is the sum of the two directly above it. The triangle demonstrates many mathematical properties in addition to showing binomial coefficients



The excerpt from The Quiet American is an iteration of Pascal's wager:

1."God is, or He is not"
2.A Game is being played... where heads or tails will turn up.
3.According to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions.
4.You must wager. (It's not optional.)
5.Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.
6.Wager, then, without hesitation that He is. (...) There is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite. And so our proposition is of infinite force, when there is the finite to stake in a game where there are equal risks of gain and of loss, and the infinite to gain.

Finished The Quiet American last night.

Some thoughts off the top of my head.
The most striking thing is Greene's vision seen in light of the Kennedy Adminstration and 'nation-building' in the 60+ years of Western policy subsequent to this book's publication. The prescience of Greene's vision centres upon the naivety that Western foreign policy has had about the attractiveness of its ideals and its capacity to remake the world in its own image.

I wonder to what extent the absence of Vietnamese voices in this novel was an intentional silence or an ironic manifestation of Western 50s literary culture. Ironic, given Greene's own concerns about the naivete of the West.
Putting aside the two main points above, prescience and the novel's potential Euro-centrism, the personal exploration of personal responsibility, self-delusion and innocence within the text is very insightful. Being unsure whether I have read the novel or not, probably has had an impact upon my assessment on the plotting but I wonder how foreseeable the central 'mystery' of the death was for first-time readers. Greene's manipulation of the temporal position of the perspective within the plot allows the streamlining of the storytime where otherwise there might need to be alot of backstory to develop the connections that draw together the world of the West in Vietnam during the first Indo-Chine War.


Perhaps the above should be bullet pointed.

I will write up a review in the next 24 hours. Need to think about what I want to read next.

In fact, the Geordie lamp was invented by George Stephenson, who was himself a Geordie in both senses: it's a nickname for George and the name given to people from the environs of Newcastle.

Stephenson is famous for his locomotive, the Rocket, and for his pioneering work in railways. Ironically, he was inspired by another Cornishman, Richard Trevithick, who came from a hamlet a few miles from my home town.

The Iliad by Homer

Bust of Homer

In the Western classical tradition, Homer (/ˈhoʊmər/; Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος [hómɛːros], Hómēros) is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest of ancient Greek epic poets. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.

When he lived is unknown. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400 years before his own time, which would place him at around 850 BC,[1] while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BC.[2] Most modern researchers place Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC.

The formative influence of the Homeric epics in shaping Greek culture was widely recognized, and Homer was described as the teacher of Greece.[3] Homer's works, which are about fifty percent speeches, provided models in persuasive speaking and writing that were emulated throughout the ancient and medieval Greek worlds. Fragments of Homer account for nearly half of all identifiable Greek literary papyrus finds.


Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer, Rembrandt, 1653.

Aristotle, world-weary, looks at the bust of blind, humble Homer, on which he rests one of his hands. This has variously been interpreted as the man of sound, methodical science deferring to Art, or as the wealthy and famous philosopher, wearing the jeweled belt given to him by Alexander the Great, envying the life of the poor blind bard.[1] It has also been suggested that this is Rembrandt's commentary on the power of portraiture.[1]

The interpretation of methodical science deferring to art is discussed at length in[1] in which Held notes that Aristotle's right hand, traditionally the favored hand, is on the bust of Homer, is higher, and painted lighter than the left hand on the gold chain given to him by Alexander.




The Iliad By Homer

Thanks for the correction. I will inform him of his mistake.

Hephaestus (/hɪˈfiːstəs/, /həˈfɛstəs/ or /hɨˈfɛstəs/; eight spellings; Ancient Greek: Ἥφαιστος Hēphaistos) is the Greek god of blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes.[1] Hephaestus' Roman equivalent is Vulcan. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, the king and queen of the gods.

As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus. He served as the blacksmith of the gods, and was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos.[2] Hephaestus' symbols are a smith's hammer, anvil, and a pair of tongs.



Hephaistos temple, Agora of Athens.

Hephaestus also built automatons of metal to work for him. This included tripods that walked to and from Mount Olympus. He gave to the blinded Orion his apprentice Cedalion as a guide. Prometheus stole the fire that he gave to man from Hephaestus's forge. Hephaestus also created the gift that the gods gave to man, the woman Pandora and her pithos. Being a skilled blacksmith, Hephaestus created all the thrones in the Palace of Olympus.


In one branch of Greek mythology, Hera ejected Hephaestus from the heavens because he was "shrivelled of foot". He fell into the ocean and was raised by Thetis (mother of Achilles) and the Oceanid Eurynome.


Thetis asks Hephaestus to forge an armor for her son Achilles,
Johann Heinrich Fussli

* Note his left foot...
Apparently arsenicosis, exposure to arsenic in the process of forging Bronze leads to lameness and skin diseases. Across Bronze age cultures most Gods of the Forge are said to have a lame foot.
Comparable to the mercury poisoning of hatters - represented in the "Mad Hatter" of Alice in Wonderland

A curator (from Latin: curare meaning "take care") is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library or archive) is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material. The object of a traditional curator's concern necessarily involves tangible objects of some sort, whether it be artwork, collectibles, historic items or scientific collections.


I wonder whether I am placing a coherent curation upon the content or just consuming content in a way that is just a mere display?

I think I need to focus upon creating and commenting more in this blog.
Something for me to ponder.

I found this link that you might find interesting.
It connects the culture and discourses of inner-city gangs and the Heroic narrative of Book 1 of The Iliad.

Update

I am reading the Wordsworth Classic translation of The Iliad although no specific translator is readily identifiable. In this version, the translator provides a brief summation (one or two sentences) of each 'book' of the poem. I have read the first two chapters and below are the two summary statements provided within for each:

Book I

How Agamemnon and Achilles fell out at the siege of Troy; and Achilles withdrew himself from battle, and won from Zeus a pledge that his wrong should be avenged on Agamemnon and Achaians.

Book II

How Zeus beguiled Agamemnon by a dream; and of the assembly of the Achaians and their marching forth to battle. And of the names and numbers of the hosts of the Achaians and the Trojans.

The poem begins 8-9 years into the Trojan War. There is a dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles over the spoils of war which is more to do with the glory and reputation garnered in victory than the actual spoil which is in dispute. The 'Greeks' are clearly homesick after fighting this long war on a distant shore and are at the point of leaving the war if but for the intervention of Achilles' mother by beseeching Zeus' power to enable her son the opportunity to regain his honour.
Book II is a honour roll of the war's participants. The number and strength of the force forms the basis of the prestige of the men under the banner alongside the personal attributes of their leader. Reputation appears to be a valued but precarious commodity in this world.
Again if you would like to hear about the roll of reputation in the poem, please watch the first part of the lecture in the youtube in the immediately prior post.
Unlike Virgil, hitherto, Homer does not seem to be as richly drawn with metaphor and imagery. Homer does seem to be more engaged with rhetoric as well as being focussed upon situating the reader precisely with the status of the participants and the levels of disputes within the cosmology of this world.

Book III

Even as when the south wind sheddeth mist over the crests of a mountain, mist unwelcome to the shepherd, but to the robber better than night, and a man can see no further than he casteth a stone; even so thick arose the gathering dust-clouds at their tread as they went; and with all speed they advanced across the plain.
So when they were now come nigh in onset on each other, godlike Alexandros played champion to the Trojans, wearing upon his shoulders panther-skin and curved bow and sword; and he brandished two bronze spears and challenged all the chieftains of the Argives to fight him man to man in deadly combat. But when Menelaos dear to Ares marked him coming in the forefront of the multitude with long strides, then even as a lion is glad when he lighteth upon a great carcase, a hoarned stag, or a wild goat that he hath found, being an hungered; and so he devoureth it amain, even though the fleet hounds and lusty youths set upon him; even thus was Menelaos glad when his eyes beheld godlike Alexandros; for he though to take vengeance upon the sinner. So straight way he leapt in his armour from his chariot to the ground.

Paris (Ancient Greek: Πάρις; also known as Alexander or Alexandros, c.f. Alaksandu of Wilusa), the son of Priam, king of Troy, appears in a number of Greek legends. Probably the best-known was his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, this being one of the immediate causes of the Trojan War. Later in the war, he fatally wounds Achilles in the heel with an arrow, as foretold by Achilles's mother, Thetis.

An early present.
I received an early present. As soon as I recognised its rectangular shape I knew it was going to be a good gift.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

Given that it would be rude not to read it and it was a long time ago that I did read it: The Wind in the Willows will go on the reading list.
Well I seem to be maintaining a decent selection adding Grahame's text with two Camus' texts + my stragglers from last month.

Update
Pg 62 - Partway through Book V summarised as
How Diomedes by his great valour made havoc of the Trojans, and wounded even Aphrodite and Ares by the help of Athene.

Otherwise known as 'Diomedes aristeia'

An aristeia or aristia (/ærɨˈstiː.ə/; Ancient Greek: ἀριστεία, IPA: [aristěːa], "excellence") is a scene in the dramatic conventions of epic poetry as in the Iliad, where a hero in battle has his finest moments (aristos = "best"). An aristeia can result in the death of the hero at the aristeia's end.

For those that have read The Iliad, this might seem an incredibly obvious observation, but central to the poem is the moral code of the warrior. If there is a 'point' to the poem, it is not to just to give an account of the Trojan War. It is a stretch to consider it a 'history poem' even though that might be one of the disciplines that examines the poem for meaning.
Systematically Homer examines the conduct of singular figures within the war. How they conduct themselves in the fight and when facing death is a central concern of the poet. If this is not borne in mind, it can be incomprehensible why the poet keeps on describing the warrior, a death , a conversation between commander and warrior --> each very similiar yet there are subtle differences between each.

The difference between a warrior and a 'hero'.
The difference between a warrior and a 'coward'.
The difference between honourable warfare and dishonourable warfare.
The reputation of warriors amongst the warrior class.
The attitude and respect one should show vs a variety of enemies.
The role of reputation of commanders with their soldiers.

Hopefully, I will make some more headway tonight. Speak to you soon.

p68 Atreides (Agamemnon) talking to the Danaans as the battle rages into the night
" 'My Friends, quit you like men and take heart of courage, and shun dishonour in one another's eyes amid the stress of battle. Of men that shun dishonour more are saved than slain, but for them that flee is neither glory found nor any safety.'"

DiggertheDog's slim connection to the Trojan War

Almost 3000 years between 2014 DtD and the Trojan war yet there is a connection between us.

98 years ago - my great grandfather as part of the 117th Field Artillery (Howitzer) Battery (22nd Artillery Brigade) departed Sydney for the War fields of France during WW1 in September 1916.

He boarded the HMAT Aeneas bound for Portsmouth...and the Battles of WWI in 1917.
Despite being buried alive, being nursed in the Queen Mother's Hospice in Scotland - he arrived back in Australia in 1920 to marry my great grandmother.

This is a picture of the troops boarding at Melbourne ( My ggfather had boarded earlier at Sydney) on the HMAT Aeneas.

The HMAT A60 Aeneas weighed 10,049 tons with an average cruise speed of 14 knots or 25.92 kmph. It was owned by the Ocean SS Co Ltd, Liverpool, and leased by the Commonwealth until 22 June 1917.

Aeneas was, of course, one of the Trojan Heroes depicted in the Iliad.

Given it is ANZAC Day - I thought I would share one of my connections to WWI.

Lest We Forget.

Read it aloud!

If you ever take the time to treat your mind by reading the Iliad - please follow this piece of advice.
Read it aloud.
Remember that it is one of the earliest written works of Western civilisation and that it was written in a culture deeply immersed in oral traditions. Of course, like myself, you might be unfortunate not to be able to read or speak Ancient Greek - yet the importance of speaking aloud the speeches within the poem will give significance of each speech by itself and relative to each other.

The lists of accomplishments and titles of each character as they address each other should signify the importance of reputation within the work. Alongside this, the ability to orate is highly valued by the poet and likely the Mycenaen Age.
So spend a little more time: reading the speeches out aloud and assure you both the pleasure of the reading and the meaning you gain from the poem will increase.

I am reading Odysseus address' to Achilles trying to get the latter to join the fray against the Trojans.

I am officially overr the hill!

I received three more books for my birthday.
Excellent additions to my 100 book reading list.

Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Alongside Wind In the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

It would appear that I have a good portion of my May reading list sorted out. I have also heard about an Independent bookstore that I was, hitherto, unaware of. Hopefully I will be able to find some of the books that have been suggested earlier in the thread at this store.

I am about 130 pages or 10 books into the the 350 page 24 book poem The Iliad. Agamemnon has been compelled, by circumstance: with the Trojans enciricling the Greek position through the Heroic deeds of Hector, to concede that he was unfair in his treatment of Achilles in Book I. Achilles' speech in Book X(?), refusing the entreaties of Agamemnon's envoys, is a wonderful passage. I feel that I finally understand Achilles' position in the Trojan War which up until now I never really comprehended.

Happy Birthday!

Hypnos and Thanatos, Sleep and His Half-Brother Death by John William Waterhouse

In Greek mythology, Hypnos (Greek: Ὕπνος, "sleep")[1] was the personification of sleep

Hypnos lived next to his twin brother, Thanatos (Θάνατος, "death personified") in the underworld.

Hypnos' mother was Nyx (Νύξ, "Night"), the deity of Night, and his father was Erebus, the deity of Darkness. Nyx was a dreadful and powerful goddess, and even Zeus feared entering her realm.

His wife, Pasithea, was one of the youngest of the Graces and was promised to him by Hera, who is the goddess of marriage and birth. Pasithea is the deity of hallucination or relaxation.

Hypnos' three sons known as the Oneiroi, which is Greek for "dreams." Morpheus is the Winged God of Dreams and can take human form in dreams. Phobetor is the personification of nightmares and created scary dreams, he could take the shape of any animal such as bears or tigers. Phantasus was known for creating fake dreams and dreams full of illusion. Morpheus, Phobetor and Phantasos appeared in the dreams of kings. The Oneiroi lived at the shores of the Ocean in the West, in a cave. They had two gates with which to send people dreams. One was made of ivory and the other was made from buckhorn. However, before they could do their work and send out the dreams, first their father, Hypnos, had to put the people to sleep.


Hypnos in the Iliad

Hypnos used his powers to trick Zeus. Hypnos was able to trick him and help the Danaans win the Trojan war. During the war, Hera loathed her brother and husband, Zeus, so she devised a plot to trick him. She decided that in order to trick him she needed to make him so enamoured with her that he would fall for the trick. So she went and washed herself with ambrosia and anointed herself with oil, made especially for her to make herself impossible to resist for Zeus. She wove flowers through her hair, put on three brilliant pendants for earrings, and donned a wondrous robe. She then called for her daughter Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and asked her for a charm that would ensure that her trick would not fail. In order to procure the charm, however, she lied to Aphrodite because they sided on opposites sides of the war. She told Aphrodite that she wanted the charm to help her parents stop fighting. Aphrodite willingly agreed. Hera was almost ready to trick Zeus, but she needed the help of Hypnos, who had tricked Zeus once before.

Hera called on Hypnos and asked him to help her by putting Zeus to sleep. Hypnos was reluctant because the last time he had put the god to sleep, he was furious when he awoke. It was Hera who had asked him to trick Zeus the first time as well. She was furious that Hercules, Zeus' son, sacked the city of the Trojans. So she had Hypnos put Zeus to sleep, and set blasts of angry winds upon the sea while Heracles was still sailing home. When Zeus awoke he was furious and went on a rampage looking for Hypnos. Hypnos managed to avoid Zeus by hiding with his mother, Nyx. This made Hypnos reluctant to accept Hera's proposal and help her trick Zeus again. Hera first offered him a beautiful golden seat that can never fall apart and a footstool to go with it. He refused this first offer, remembering the last time he tricked Zeus. Hera finally got him to agree by promising that he would be married to Pasithea, one of the youngest Graces, whom he had always wanted to marry. Hypnos made her swear by the river Styx and call on gods of the underworld to be witnesses so that he would be ensured that he would marry Pasithea. Now, with Hypnos' help, Hera went to see Zeus on Gargarus, the topmost peak of Mount Ida. Zeus was extremely taken by her and suspected nothing as Hypnos was shrouded in a thick mist and hidden upon a pine tree that was close to where Hera and Zeus were talking. Zeus asked Hera what she was doing there and why she had come there from Olympus and she told him the same lie she told her daughter Aphrodite. She told him that she wanted to go help her parents stop quarreling and she stopped there to consult him because she didn't want to go without his knowledge and have him be angry with her when he found out. Zeus said that she could go any time, and that she should postpone her visit and stay there with him so they could enjoy each other's company. He told her that he was never in love with anyone as much as he loved her at that moment. He took her in his embrace and Hypnos went to work putting him to sleep, with Hera in his arms. While this went on, Hypnos traveled to the ships of the Achaeans to tell Poseidon, God of the Sea, that he could now help the Danaans and give them a victory while Zeus was sleeping. This is where Hypnos leaves the story, leaving Poseidon eager to help the Dananns. Thanks to Hypnos helping to trick Zeus, the war changed its course to Hera's favor, and Zeus never found out that Hypnos had tricked him one more time



I am in the middle of Book XVI pg 220.
Zeus has just arisen from his slumber and Hector and the Trojans are on the brink of victory. Patroklos is about to don Achilles armour to fight Hector.
Still have about 1/3 of the poem to go.

Things to help you navigate your way through The Iliad.
1. Homer will describe a fight, person or setting by outlining the bare details and then uses an extended metaphor to give the reader a sense of scene or person.

Blue description
Red the extended simile

e.g.
p240

Thus saying he smote on the circle of the shield of Menelaos, but the spear brake it not, but the point was bent back in the stubborn shield. And Menelaos Atreus' son in his turn made at him with his bronze spear, having prayed unto Father Zeus, and as he gave back pierced the nether part of his throat of his throat, and threw his weight into the stroke, following his heavy hand; and sheer through the tender neck went the point of the spear. And he fell with a crash and his armour rang upon him. In blood was his hair drenched that was like unto the hair of the Graces, and his tresses closely knit with bands of silver and gold. As wherl a man rearth some lusty sapling of an olive in a clear space where water springeth plenteously, a goodly shoot fair-growing, and blasts of all winds shake it, yet it bursteth into white blossom; then suddenly cometh the wind of a great hurricane and wresteth it out of its abiding place and stretcheth it out upon the earth: even so lay Panthoos' son Eurphorbos of the good ashen spear when Menelaos Atreus' son had slain him, and despoiled him of his arms.

You tend to get similes about Shepherds and lions, wolves wild boars - fighting each other or attack sheep ----> these are usually similes of a fight.
You tend to get nature similes about deaths.
You tend to get weather similes about Gods' actions.

2. Reputation: you will get speeches about valour and bravery, fight or flight, hestitation vs impetous action. All of these discussions are meant to underline that how one dies is far more important than death itself.
You gain reputation by dying by being both brave and smart.
You gain reputation by risking yourself for the battle or for your friends body.
You gain reputation by who and how you kill others. Arrows, darts are lucky rather than skill - and less honourable than by spear or sword.

So you will find that Homer will describe how the Hero or Immortal or King or coward dies. The detail or simile will describe what Homer thinks of the death. Usually the greater the detail it goes into the greater the reputation gained by the death or the reputation of the character dying.

3. Foretelling - is important. The gods will foretell events to unfold. Zeus is the one who holds most control over events and ultimately it is he who decides what will happen. Other gods seek to delay, distract or change the course of events to disrupt what is taking place - they usually have to catch Zeus off-guard to change the battle or the outcome of a duel.

Zeus' ultimate goal is to allow Achilles to redeem his reputation. He is punishing the Achaians because of Agamemnon dissing of Achilles rightful gains.
Hera, Poseidon, Apollo, Ares, Athena all intervene on behalf of or with a character for a variety of reasons.

Zeus is not really for or against either side winning although he seems to be helping the Trojans and Hector for most of the poem. So you might get confused as to why the "greeks" invoke Zeus even when he is working against them. The reason being Zeus needs the Heroes to build themselves up - killing each other up and building the reputation of Hector so when he fights Achilles and loses - Achilles is rightly remembered as the greatest Hero of the Heroic Age.

4. Titles - you will get repeated full titles of characters. This is in line with the importance of reputation.

5. Back story: As a character is reaching his climax or his important moment - you will get a speech from the Character where he will outline his achievements and heritage : Again his reputation.

Alright I have finished The Iliad. I will do a write-up in the next 24 hours. Before I attend to that I would like to point to two sections which I think you should be particularly interested in.
1) End of Book XVIII - Hephaistos making of Achilles new Armour. When you read the almost 4 pages the poet devotes to describing his shield - you cannot help think that this would have been the most magnificient work of metalsmithery one could possibly imagine.
An extraordinary picture is painted - pg 265-269 of my edition. Further to the significance of this - as I mentioned earlier the amount of time spent by the poet on a description is a good indicator of the important of the thing being described. Thus, after reading this, one cannot help but conclude that the pre-eminent character is Achilles.
2) Another section which I will quote below that I found powerful is Achilles empathesising with the grief-stricken Priam. Both men are bearing grief for lost loved ones... picture below (which is on the cover of my edition)

Priam Asking Achilles to Return Hector's Body, Alexander Ivanov

Book XXIV p346

Thus spake he, and stirred within Achilles desire to make lament for his father. And he touched the old man's hand and gently moved him back. And as they both bethought them of their dead, so Priam for man-slaying Hector wept sore as he was fallen before Achilles' feet, and Achilles wept for his own father, and now again for Patroklos, and their moan went up throughout the house. But when noble Achilles had satisfied him with lament, and the desire thereof departed from his heart and limbs, straightway he sprang from his seat and raised the old man hy his hand, pitying his hoary head and hoary beard, and spake unto him winged words and said:' Ah Hapless! many ill things verily thou hast endured in they heart. How durst thou come alone to the ships of the Achaians and to meet the eyes of the man who hath slain full many of thy brave sons? of iron verily is thy heart. But come then set thee on as seat, and we will let our sorrows lie in our hearts, for all our pain, for no avail cometh of chill lament. This is the lot the gods have spun for miserable men, that they should live in pain;yet themselves are sorrowless. For two urns stand upon the floor of Zeus filled with his evil gifts, and one with blessings. To whomsoever Zeus whose joy is in the lightning dealeth a mingled lot, that man chanceth now upon ill and now again on good, but to whom he giveth but of the bad kind him he bringeth to scorn, and evil famine chaseth him over goodly earth, and he is a wanderer homoured of neither gods nor men. Even thus to Peleus gave the gods splendid gifts from his birth, for he excelled all men in good fortune and wealth, and was king of the Myrmidons and mortal though he was the gods gave him a goddess to be his bride. Yet even on him God brought evil, seeing that there arose to him no offspring of princely sons in his halls, save that he begat one son to an untimely death. Neither may I tend him as he groweth old, since very far from my country I am dwelling in Troy-land, to vex thee and thy children. And of thee, old sire, we have heard how of old time thou wert happy, even how of all that Lesbos, seat of Makar, boundeth to the north thereof and Phyrygia farther up and the vast Hellespont - of all these folk, men say, thou wert the richest in wealth and in sons, but after that the Powers of Heaven brought his bane on thee, ever are battles and manslayings around thy city. Keep courage, and lament not unabatingly in thy heart. For nothing wilt thou avail by grieving for thy son, neither shalt thou bring him back to life or ever some new evil come upon thee.'

hmmm...

I am going to go to bed reading..
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.