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The first study to examine desire in the
Iliad in a comprehensive way, explaining its relationship to the epic's narrative structure and audience reception. The author offers a new reading of the poem that shows how the characters' desires, especially those of mortal hero Achilleus and divine king Zeus, motivate plot and engage the audience.
List of contents
- Introduction
- 1: Triangles of Desire at the Iliad's Opening
- 2: Achilleus' Plot and Divine Determination
- 3: The Superplot's Beginning
- 4: The Desire for War and its Discontents
- 5: The Renewal of Achilleus' Destructive Desires
- 6: The Oppositional Desires of Hera and Patroklos
- 7: Achilleus' Mourning and Revenge
- 8: Desire for Lamentation
About the author
Rachel H. Lesser earned a BA in Classics from Columbia University and a second BA in Classics and English from Magdalen College, University of Oxford. She went on to earn her MA in Classics and PhD in Classics, with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality, from the University of California, Berkeley. She has published articles on Homer and Sappho, with a focus on women, desire, and intertextuality. She has taught in the Department of Classics at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania since 2016.
Summary
The first study to examine desire in the Iliad in a comprehensive way, explaining its relationship to the epic's narrative structure and audience reception. The author offers a new reading of the poem that shows how the characters' desires, especially those of mortal hero Achilleus and divine king Zeus, motivate plot and engage the audience.
Additional text
Desire in the Iliad. The Force that Moves the Epic and its Audience 'clarifies how the Iliad is fundamentally an epic about human feelings and human relationships rather than spectacular violence'
