Iliad Quotes

• The Iliad is the private lives of people thrown into disorder by history.

  Raymond Queneau

  People, Disorder, Thrown

  4 Copy quote

• The Odyssey is, indeed, one of the greatest of all stories, it is the original romance of the West; but the Iliad, though a magnificent poem, is not much of a story.

  George Saintsbury

  Romance, Stories, West

  George Saintsbury (2012). “The English Novel”, p.11, tredition

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• A very great Iliad... concerns the creation of a nation.

  Raymond Queneau

  Rehabilitation, Creation, Concern

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• There is nothing alive more agonized than man / of all that breathe and crawl across the earth.

  Homer

  Men, Alive, Earth

  Homer (2002). “The Iliad”, Spark Notes

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• A man's life breath cannot come back again--
  no raiders in force, no trading brings it back,
  once it slips through a man's clenched teeth.

  Homer

  Death, Men, Rage From The Iliad

  Homer, Derek Jacobi (2006). “The Iliad”, Highbridge Co

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• Ruin, eldest daughter of Zeus, she blinds us all, that fatal madness—she with those delicate feet of hers, never touching the earth, gliding over the heads of men to trap us all. She entangles one man, now another.

  Homer

  Daughter, Men, Feet

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• Why so much grief for me? No man will hurl me down to Death, against my fate. And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it, neither brave man nor coward, I tell you - it’s born with us the day that we are born.

  Homer

  Grief, Fate, Men

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• It is entirely seemly for a young man killed in battle to lie mangled by the bronze spear. In his death all things appear fair.

  Homer

  Lying, Men, Civilization

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• Over the wine-dark sea.

  Homer

  Wine, Dark, Sea

  Homer (2004). “Iliad of Homer”, p.128, 1st World Publishing

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• Achilles glared at him and answered, "Fool, prate not to me about covenants. There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other out and out an through. Therefore there can be no understanding between you and me, nor may there be any covenants between us, till one or other shall fall

  Homer

  Hate, Fall, Men

  Homer (2015). “The Iliad & The Odyssey”, p.337, Booklassic

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• Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away.

  Homer

  Spring, Men, Wind

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• No one can hurry me down to Hades before my time, but if a man's hour is come, be he brave or be he coward, there is no escape for him when he has once been born.

  Homer

  Men, Brave, Coward

  Homer (2012). “The Iliad”, p.74, Courier Corporation

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• It is not possible to fight beyond your strength, even if you strive.

  Homer

  Fighting, Strive, Ifs

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• He knew the things that were and the things that would be and the things that had been before.

  Homer

  Would Be

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• He lives not long who battles with the immortals, nor do his children prattle about his knees when he has come back from battle and the dread fray.

  Homer

  Children, Long, Battle

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• A generation of men is like a generation of leaves; the wind scatters some leaves upon the ground, while others the burgeoning wood brings forth - and the season of spring comes on. So of men one generation springs forth and another ceases.

  Homer

  Spring, Men, Wind

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• The god of war is impartial: he hands out death to the man who hands out death.

  Homer

  War, Men, Hands

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• Of men who have a sense of honor, more come through alive than are slain, but from those who flee comes neither glory nor any help.

  Homer

  Men, Honor, Alive

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• It was built against the will of the immortal gods, and so it did not last for long.

  Homer

  Long, Lasts, Immortal

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• If you are very valiant, it is a god, I think, who gave you this gift.

  Homer

  Thinking, Valiant, Ifs

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• Even when someone battles hard, there is an equal portion for one who lingers behind, and in the same honor are held both the coward and the brave man; the idle man and he who has done much meet death alike.

  Homer

  Men, Brave, Honor

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• It is not unseemly for a man to die fighting in defense of his country.

  Homer

  Country, Fighting, Men

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• A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.

  Herodotus

  Kings, Rage From The Iliad, Good Things

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• I too shall lie in the dust when I am dead, but now let me win noble renown.

  Homer

  Lying, Winning, Dust

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• Once harm has been done, even a fool understands it.

  Homer

  Done, Fool, Harm

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