The Iliad

by Homer

The Iliad shows what happens when all these social norms are violated, and fighters push for victory at any cost.

The horror of war is stained, like ivory, with beauty.

Castor the horseman, and the boxer, Pollux, my full-blood brothers. We all shared a mother.

Despair and triumph swelled among the killers

And I will choose twelve lovely Trojan children and slit their throats above your funeral pyre,

The Greeks have often spoken to me about the things I said and blamed me for them. It was not my fault! The ones to blame are Destiny and Zeus and the avenging night-walker, the Fury, who set a wild delusion in my mind during the council meeting on the day when I removed the trophy from Achilles.