DNF read, so no rating,
Sorry, but this was too long and repetitive for me and I didn't care about what happened in it at all. Too much was going on, and there were too many characters, none I liked, but at the same time it felt like nothing was being accomplished. It was Greek gods, who are the real villains in every story they appear in, constantly meddling in and betting on a war plot which can basically be summed up as, "Men go to war for over ten years because girl is pretty".
But the dryness, repetitions, pettiness, misogyny, slut-shaming (poor Helen, and she's a mother, remember?), and subjugation of women, I might have forgiven, due to it all being written as a product of the story's time, and possible translation issues...
Except that 'The Iliad' utterly screws over Artemis. I admit to skimming a lot of Homer's uh, masterpiece that transcends time and ancient history, but there is one moment that made me especially glad that I gave up on it:
Artemis, who barely appears throughout and is just following her brother Apollo's lead in the Trojan war, has a little fight with one of the gods. I think it was Hera, because of course everything always has to be Hera's fault. Zeus can literally do whatever the fuck he wants without comeuppance but Hera can only go fuck herself, apparently. Anyway, Hera boxes Artemis's ears with her own quiver, and Artemis runs crying to Zeus, kneeling at his feet as he's on his throne, because Hera is so mean.
Let me reiterate: Artemis, the Artemis, my Artemis, independent virgin goddess, goddess of the hunt, goddess of women and childbirth and midwifery, queen of the beasts, undisputed feminist badass and equal in power to the male Greek gods, literally runs crying to daddy because her stepmother boxed her ears like a five-year-old. Adding to her being subservient to Apollo, at that point I was like, "Right, I'm done here. Goodbye."
And that's that in my relationship with 'The Iliad', done and dusted.
No comments:
Post a Comment