Book of a lifetime: ‘The Iliad’ by Homer

From The Independent archive: Homer’s epic masterpiece isn’t just a poem, writes Madeline Miller – it’s a glimpse behind the veil of war, grief and mortality

Homer, the eighth century poet, probably from a drawing by Raphael circa 1500 (Getty)

Every night at bedtime, my mother would read me a story. The books were classic and beloved: runaway bunnies, saying goodnight to the moon, a friendship between a pig and a spider. But one evening, the book she chose made me sit up with extra attention.

Maybe it was the serious cover, brick-red with a black drawing of a woman in armour. Maybe it was the thesaurus-sized heft of it, or the monumental font of the title. Most definitely, it was the first line: “Sing, goddess, of the terrible rage of Achilles.”

For several months, I had the pleasure of hearing the Iliad just as its first audiences did: out loud. Just like those crowds 3,000 years ago, the poem held me in thrall.