Homer’s Iliad: Liberty and Responsibility

This is a Reading List based upon a Liberty Fund Conference on “Liberty and Responsibility in Homer’s Iliad.”

Liberty and Responsibility in Homer’s Iliad

Topic

Homer’s Iliad is one of the foundational texts of the Western tradition, and an essential work for understanding Greek civilization. The Iliad offers a rich and varied tapestry of the human condition in war, by considering the relationship of the human to the divine, the public to the private, and peace to war. Some questions that could be raised have to do with the differing conceptions of liberty and responsibility in Achilles and Hector. What are the sorts of obligations that bind them? What freedom do they have to act within these obligatory ties or to act outside of them? What does Homer’s depiction of the gods’ interventions in human affairs say about freedom? What about the role of fate? What does the depiction of the heroism in the Iliad tell us about the human condition and its possibilities?

Guide to the Readings

Edition used:

• Homer, The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury; Now First Collected and Edited by Sir William Molesworth, Bart., (London: Bohn, 1839-45). 11 vols. Vol. 10.

See also in the Online Library of Liberty:

• Collections: Literature
• Collections: War and Peace

For additional reading see:

• Homer

Session I: Among God and Heroes

Homer’s Iliad

• Book I, Book II, Book III, Book IV

Session II: The Fragility of Mortality

Homer’s Iliad

• Book V, Book VI, Book VII, Book VIII

Session III: Luck, Fate, and Doom

Homer’s Iliad

• Book IX, Book X, Book XI, Book XII

Session IV: Love and Death

Homer’s Iliad

• Book XIII, Book XIV, Book XV, Book XVI

Session V: The Shield of Achilles

Homer’s Iliad

• Book XVII, Book XVIII, Book XIX, Book XX

Session VI: Remembering Achilles’ Humanity

Homer’s Iliad

• Book XXI, Book XXII, Book XXIII, Book XXIV