The Iliad roars with the clamor of arms, the bellowing boasts of victors, the fury and grief of loss, and the anguished cries of dying men. It sings, too, of the sublime magnitude of the world–the fierce beauty of nature and the gods grand schemes beyond the ken of mortals. In Wilson s hands, this thrilling, magical, and often horrifying tale now gallops at a pace befitting its legendary battle scenes, in crisp but resonant language that evokes the poem s deep pathos and reveals palpably real, even complicated, characters–both human and divine.