One of the many fascinating aspects of both the Iliad and the Odyssey is the fundamental ambiguity of Homer's stories. Is the Iliad a great war poem - or a great anti-war poem? Is Achilles really the hero of the Iliad, or is it perhaps Hector (whose death and funeral mark the end of the poem)? Are the gods the sources and enforcers of justice, or are they just as often capriciously unjust (e.g., in causing the ten-year wanderings of Odysseus after the Trojan War)? And so on.
This is one of the reasons Plato had Socrates express so many reservations about Homer in the Republic. For the very same reason, Homer was a favorite among Greek thinkers of a questioning mindset, such as Pyrrho and his disciple Timon of Phlius. This essential ambiguity will provide much fodder for reflection in my projected epic poem about Pyrrho and Alexander the Great.
(Cross-posted at philosopher.coach.)
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