---
product_id: 13081720
title: "The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War"
brand: "caroline alexander"
price: "283 kr"
currency: DKK
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.dk/products/13081720-the-war-that-killed-achilles-the-true-story-of-homers
store_origin: DK
region: Denmark
---

# The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War

**Brand:** caroline alexander
**Price:** 283 kr
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

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- **What is this?** The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War by caroline alexander
- **How much does it cost?** 283 kr with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Currently out of stock
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.dk](https://www.desertcart.dk/products/13081720-the-war-that-killed-achilles-the-true-story-of-homers)

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## Description

The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War

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![The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511xI4P2kXL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    A GOOD STARTING PLACE
  

*by D***R on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 14, 2010*

Alexander, who has written well received popular histories of Shackleton's antarctic expedition (The Endurance) and the ill-fated mutiny on Capt. Bligh's ship (The Bounty), earned her doctorate in the classics, writing on the Iliad, at Columbia University. In this book, which lies closer to popular history than to the strictly academic product, she retells the story of the Iliad while pointing to its salient features, many of which are not at first apparent to a lay reader like me. This means a great deal of telling of the story, with copious quotation followed by commentary on the passages cited. It all points to a mildly, though not exceptionally, different interpretation of the poem's message and biases than I have seen presented before.  With the exception of Alexander's translation of Book XIX (the death of Hektor), passages are all from Lattimore's translation. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing I don't know, but its one of the major modern translations of the poem, and to quibble with her choice of it seems petty.Alexander's thesis is that the Iliad is sui generis in its approach to war. Homer humanizes the victims more than is common in other epics, making their death in battle less acceptable than it if only fame and glory were the warriors' preoccupations or the poet's focus of attention. Achilles, no less than Hektor, just wants to go home. He disdains the Achaians' own leader, the Mycenaean king Agamemnon, who has shown little capacity for military leadership before the walls of Troy. By taking from Achilles his bounty, the beautiful slave woman Briseis, the king has fatally insulted him so Achilles retires from battle, leaving the Achaians to their own measures to fight off the reinvigorated TrojansAlexander argues that Achilles' response to Agamemnon has echoes in the reactions of modern day warriors to their own war experience: wars carried on for no or flimsy reason, incompetent and self-serving leaders, appalling loss. So far, so good. When she tries to build a case for Achilles' qualities as a military leader, though, she is on much shakier ground. Achilles is too much of a wild animal to make a good leader, no mater how charismatic he can be or how respected he is as a warrior. No sane subordinate would follow him for long, given his tendency to fall into rage or sulk. He just doesn't behave the way a good leader does.Alexander relies heavily on the work of her illustrious predecessors. This isn't a failing: an intelligent writer should do that, indeed often has to do it. I wasn't put off by the copious citation in the body of the text. It didn't bother me to move slowly through the poem, stopping time and again to examine points. Over all, the book helped me understand the Iliad. I thought what she wrote was lively, sensible and insightful.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Excellent background explanation of the saga
  

*by E***R on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 19, 2019*

I bought this book based on a positive review I had seen.  It exceeded my expectations.  The author did an excellent job and devoted significant time to explaining the context of the story as well as some of the theories about who wrote it and when.  She also pointed out many of the stories geographical references and explained whether these were real places or fictions added by the story teller(s).  Originally I thought I would just read the background material and that the saga itself would be tedious for me.  But I ended up reading the whole thing.  There are repetitions, as we were warned, but I thoroughly enjoyed following the complete story.  I think it helped, that the author of this book made sure we understood that we were reading about another time and another culture.  So instead of getting hung up and a "god" acting a certain way, or having certain motives, I learned to accept that this was the way that the original story-tellers interpreted their world, and I was able to come to grips with that.  Highly recommended for students of history (in all it's aspects) and people fascinated with Mediterranean life.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 3.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    A Take on the Iliad
  

*by D***N on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 8, 2021*

This is a scholar's analysis of the Iliad, specifically one aspect of the Iliad: Achilles' position as a hero outside his time for an epic that doesn't fit with the pursuit of glory that defines/defined heroic epic heretofore. For what it is, it's fine. It's a more novice reader-friendly summary than I am capable of, and I teach lower level (introductory) courses in Greek and Roman Civilization, mostly Myths of Greece and Rome.The book is a disappointment because I had hoped (assumed - I picked up the kindle edition on a whim) it would be something more encompassing than a reading of the Iliad. I should also note, that I read the author's translation of the Iliad and found it to be good, and that also encouraged me to checkout this text.Anyway, other than disappointment because I didn't realize that this book was a narrowly focused analysis of an aspect of the Iliad (to be fair, other than the title, it makes no claims to be otherwise), I find some of the analysis to be a bit of a stretch. Probably the most significant way in which Alexander "rewrites" the Iliad, however, can be encapsulated in her description of the scene in Book 1 where Achilles begins to unsheathe his sword as he is about to slay Agamemnon. In the Iliad, Athena descends from Olympus to stay Achilles' hand. There's no ambiguity here. The omniscient narrator tells you Athena does this, and then she proceeds to have a conversation with Achilles, telling him not to slay Agamemnon and then how to proceed. Alexander's analysis shrugs this conversation off as though it maybe sort of didn't happen and suggests it could all be a delusional fantasy on the part of Achilles. That's a stretch. No. Really. That's a big time stretch, all in service to separating divine agency from human agency in the Iliad because that enhances her analysis of the relationship between Agamemnon and Achilles.It happens again in an analysis of the embassy to Achilles in Iliad 9, but here I'm not so sure that I simply disagree on her characterization of Achilles rather than stretching the bounds of credulity (as above).And to be honest, it's an unnecessary move. She presents plenty enough evidence to give credence to her narrow (as opposed to all encompassing) analysis of the Iliad. For example, she writes brilliantly on the relationship of reciprocity of honor: "By taking back a prize of war, [Agamemnon] has broken the rules that, had he been wise enough to perceive them, both afforded him his status and were all that kept Achilles' terrible strength in check." Again, "That Agamemnon is threatened by Achilles is manifest from his first reactions in their confrontation. What the king does not know, however, is that the usurpation he fears has in effect already taken place: Achilles controls the army's fate and will continue to do so, present or absent, as Achilles controls the epic."This is all truly great stuff that feeds into her analysis without asking readers to break away from a fairly obvious supposition that the gods exist and actively engage - directly - with humans in the epic. So there are a few moments like that in the first couple chapters that distract from the thesis of Alexander's work rather than serve it, and they create skepticism unnecessarily.Lastly, this book isn't really aimed at unlocking ideas from past civilizations so much as forwarding a modern world view about modern problems. This isn't a bad thing. It happens all the time with literature. It's not really my cup of tea, however. It feels like there's too much effort here to make an 8th century BCE poem fit into a 21st century CE world view than be a 21st century CE scholar figure out the 8th century BCE world view. This determined reanalysis of Achilles feels like a hard pull to the left when it ought to be more of a gentle course correction. As I said, it's not a *bad* thing. It's just not my interest, per se.

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*Last updated: 2026-02-19*