joshua_78What bugs me about this book is my personal feelings, as a parent, regarding the children of ancient Greece having to memorize these lines. I expect to grant leniency on many things, when dealing with works throughout history, affording more as I go further back. Especially with literature on war, I expect it to be disgusting and bring out every horrible aspect of mankind. What troubles me is thinking of children memorizing some of the very grotesque depictions of death, particularly the empaling of people in detailed fashion. This is my first reading of epic poetry so you might be right that I’m not reading it in the proper sense. However, I sense a lot of psychological damage was unfortunately bestowed on many generations of greek children. I will say this much, I feel I learn more about myself from reading/seeing things that I do not like as opposed to things I do. For that reason, I feel I must finish this book just for the sake of self-exploration.