9 August 2021
In The Human Stain Philip Roth describes the Iliad as the source of European literature. All European literature starts, he says, with a fight. It's a fight between two great and powerful men: Agamemnon, commander in chief of the Greek army which is laying siege to Troy, and Achilles, the greatest of the Greek fighters. What are they quarrelling about, these "violent, mighty souls?" It's as basic as a barroom brawl. They're fighting over a woman. A girl, really. A girl stolen from her father. A girl abducted in a war.