The Iliad

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.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Edith Hall 19 episodes
  Professor of Classics at King's College London
• Barbara Graziosi No other episodes
  Professor of Classics at Princeton University
• Paul Cartledge 21 episodes
  A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture at Clare College, Cambridge

Reading list

• Edith Hall at King's College London
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• Paul Cartledge at the University of Cambridge
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• Barbara Graziosi at Princeton University
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• 'A Tale of Troy' by Paul Cartledge - BBC History Magazine
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• Barbara Graziosi and Anthony Verity on Homer's Iliad
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• 'The Trojan War' by Peter Gainsford - Kiwi Hellenist
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• The Iliad - Wikipedia
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• Homer
  Jonathan S. Burgess (I.B.Tauris, 2014) Google Books →
• Homer: Readings and Images
  C. Emlyn-Jones, L. Hardwick and J. Purkis (eds) (Open University/Duckworth, 1992)
• The Cambridge Companion to Homer
  Robert Fowler (ed.) (Cambridge University Press, 2004) Google Books →
• Homer
  Barbara Graziosi (Oxford University Press, 2016) Google Books →
• Homer on Life and Death
  Jasper Griffin (Oxford University Press, 1983) Google Books →
• The Iliad
  Homer (trans. Robert Fagles) (Penguin, 1992) Google Books →
• Nature and Culture in the Iliad: The Tragedy of Hector
  James M. Redfield (Duke University Press, 1994) Google Books →
• The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer's Iliad
  Seth L. Schein (University of California Press, 1992) Google Books →
• Homer's Trojan Theater: Space, Vision and Memory in the Iliad
  Jenny Strauss Clay (Cambridge University Press, 2011) Google Books →

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Programme ID: b0bh5x1y

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bh5x1y

Auto-category: 880 (Greek literature)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello, The Iliad is one of the greatest works in world literature.