Thus revealed, the creature buried its nose in the tire-tilled soil...
June 13, 2005
"It has only one mark..."
Category: Miscellany

So I finished reading Elizabeth Cook's Achilles today. Again, not bad, though I didn't quite get the part at the end with Keats (or, I kinda got it, but could've done without it and didn't think it added much to the book). And I learned a few things that I didn't know about the Trojan War -- for example, I thought Pyrrhus was a fucking badass and loved him when we translated select books from Virgil's Aeneid back in high school, but I never knew that he was the son of Achilles. And I didn't know much about Chiron at all -- interesting character, or at least Cook made him so. Good stuff.

Anyway, I was inspired to do a little reading (!), so here's the passage below as read by your buddy Wes.

When he had finished killing Hector the Myrmidons had each had a go, killing him again and again. They took it in turns to shove in a spear. Some jabbed; others wiggled, getting the feel of the man, till Hector's body, stripped of the armour he had stolen from Patroclus, was ugly, squelching pulp. Now all those wounds are sealed. Achilles has never seen a body so perfect. It has only one mark: a stain like a kiss at Hector's throat. (p. 42)

What do you think? Should I be reading books on tape? That would be an awesome job! Until next time, minna-san.

-posted by Wes | 9:18 pm | Comments (2)
2 Comments »
  • Becky says:

    Dude.... you read it like a fairy tale -- or was that just me? I find that period fascinating, esp. at how obvious the Trojan Horse was a trap. I just can't believe they didn't think to check it before bringing it in to Troy.

  • Wes says:

    That's why it's mythology, Becky! I doubt that the Trojan Horse would've succeeded in real life, without the mythological reasons the Trojans had for bringing it inside their walls (namely the attack on Laocoon and his sons by two sea serpents, as related in this Scary-Crayon translation of a passage from Virgil's Aeneid).

    And I probably read everything like a fairy tale.

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