Homer's Iliad and the Problem of Force - Hardcover

by Charles H. Stocking (Author)

The topic of force has long remained a problem of interpretation for readers of Homer's Iliad, ever since Simone Weil famously proclaimed it as the poem's main subject. This book seeks to address that problem through a full-scale treatment of the language of force in the Iliad from both philological and philosophical perspectives. Each chapter explores the different types of Iliadic force in combination with the reception of the Iliad in the French intellectual tradition. Ultimately, this book demonstrates that the different terms for force in the Iliad give expression to distinct relations between self and "other." At the same time, this book reveals how the Iliad as a whole undermines the very relations of force which characters within the poem seek to establish. Ultimately, this study of force in the Iliad offers an occasion to reconsider human subjectivity in Homeric poetry.

Author Biography

Charles H. Stocking, Western University

Charles Stocking is an associate professor of Classical Studies at Western University. He earned his BA with honors and MA in Classics at Stanford University and his PhD in Classics at UCLA. He is an associate fellow at the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, an associate member of ANHIMA (Anthropologie et Histoire des Mondes Anciens), and former invited professor at the ﾉcole des hautes 騁udes en sciences sociales in Paris, France.