The Iliad

I'm tired. Got up way too early this morning to get out of the house before a crew came to test our house for air leaks. Sort of. More or less. Something like that. We are a test site for all kinds of weird stuff. New passive-solar strawbale house and inability to say "no."

Anyway, last night I finished The Iliad, the first reading in The Lifetime Reading Plan. Yes, it's a good read, if you're into that sort of story. War, murder, pettiness. Great art reaches across centuries and cultures. However, it reminds me once again that mankind is still little more than a power-hungry, egotistical, murderous savage. And that we always have made our gods and goddesses in our own image. We don't know today why "God lets bad things happen to good people." In ancient Greece, even the gods could not control Fate. Same thing. I'm further amazed at the graphic nature of the killing in The Iliad. Makes modern media look nearly tame -- certainly no worse. Maybe The Iliad speaks clearly to us today because we haven't changed one iota since that time, nor has our arts and entertainment. I couldn't care much about any of the characters no matter how hard I tried. Well, I guess I'm a better person for having read The Iliad. We'll see. On to the next item on the list.