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"They dried off the sweat on their tunics / standing to face the breeze from the seashore"
Reading the Iliad is almost like watching a movie. Hyperdetailed a lot of the time. If he described them taking a dump it wouldn't be out of place. "Then did wily Odysseus take a long-handled shovel and -- like a rabbit, which digs a ditch, then covers it, so that its excrement does not attract predators -- create a hole, in which he relieved himself of that which remained after his god-formed clay was done with his food, then fill it again, so that an ill-judged step would not sully his leather sandals."
Recent reading: Epic of Gilgamesh, Penguin edition; Ancillary Sword.
Current reading: The Iliad, Peter Green trans; Fate/stay night visual novel. I'm not sure which is longer.
(Answer: Fate. About 800,000 words to 155,000. Lord of the Rings is under 500,000.
Between Fate and Iliad, not sure which is gorier. Iliad probably has more rape but Fate makes it realer. Relatedly it also has more female role and agency. And more moral characters. Rin is the Grumpiest Paladin.)
Also re-reading the Wizard of Earthsea, inspired by this paean. Though I'm finding that a rich diet of female-centric anime and modern SF/F can leave older stuff (Earthsea and Iliad included) feeling... off. And the Iliad is supposed to be full of sexist assholes; "as wicked as women's magic" is another matter.
Reading the Iliad is almost like watching a movie. Hyperdetailed a lot of the time. If he described them taking a dump it wouldn't be out of place. "Then did wily Odysseus take a long-handled shovel and -- like a rabbit, which digs a ditch, then covers it, so that its excrement does not attract predators -- create a hole, in which he relieved himself of that which remained after his god-formed clay was done with his food, then fill it again, so that an ill-judged step would not sully his leather sandals."
Recent reading: Epic of Gilgamesh, Penguin edition; Ancillary Sword.
Current reading: The Iliad, Peter Green trans; Fate/stay night visual novel. I'm not sure which is longer.
(Answer: Fate. About 800,000 words to 155,000. Lord of the Rings is under 500,000.
Between Fate and Iliad, not sure which is gorier. Iliad probably has more rape but Fate makes it realer. Relatedly it also has more female role and agency. And more moral characters. Rin is the Grumpiest Paladin.)
Also re-reading the Wizard of Earthsea, inspired by this paean. Though I'm finding that a rich diet of female-centric anime and modern SF/F can leave older stuff (Earthsea and Iliad included) feeling... off. And the Iliad is supposed to be full of sexist assholes; "as wicked as women's magic" is another matter.