The Iliad and The Song of Achilles

[ibdarras]

Hi all,

I was researching topics for my Extended Essay and I thought of doing either something with Jane Austen (let me know if you have any ideas!) or the Iliad.

I had read The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller) recently, and I thought I could do something around the societal changes between Homer’s Iliad and the 2011 Song of Achilles. For example, The Song of Achilles is a homosexual live story, whereas Homer did not write the Iliad like such.

Was wondering what you thought about this topic, is it interesting? Could it be well executed? 

Thank you!

[stormchaser]

On 3/14/2022 at 9:35 PM, ibdarras said:

Hi all,

I was researching topics for my Extended Essay and I thought of doing either something with Jane Austen (let me know if you have any ideas!) or the Iliad.

I had read The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller) recently, and I thought I could do something around the societal changes between Homer’s Iliad and the 2011 Song of Achilles. For example, The Song of Achilles is a homosexual live story, whereas Homer did not write the Iliad like such.

Was wondering what you thought about this topic, is it interesting? Could it be well executed? 

Thank you!

That's a really cool idea! I find it fascinating to explore how Greek mythology is incorporated in modern society, plus the song of Achilles is an awesome book. You could also check out some other modern interpretations of Greek mythology - such as Circe by Madeleine Miller - and potentially do an essay on one of them, or maybe compare two modern interpretations of different stories and what aspects changed in both stories from the original text or something along those lines.

Alternatively, if you're interested in Greek mythology to a big extent you could find a separate book and talk about how Greek mythology influenced it. For example, I might do my essay on how Greek mythology influenced Tolkien's writing, although I'm kinda struggling to figure out what to do so it could be a bit of a challenging route.