“ Homer's epic does not tell of such seemingly essential events as the abduction of Helen, for example, nor of the mustering and sailing of the Greek fleet, the first hostilities of the war, the Trojan… Caroline Alexander
“ Surely, by all convention, the Iliad will end here, with the triumphant return of its vindicated hero. But the Iliad is not a conventional epic, and at the very moment of its hero's greatest military… Caroline Alexander
“ This, the only occasion in the Iliad when furious Achilles smiles serves as a bittersweet reminder of the difference real leadership could have made to the events of the Iliad. Agamemnon's panicked pr… Caroline Alexander
“ The greatest war story ever told commemorates a war that established no boundaries, won no territory, and furthered no cause. Caroline Alexander
