the Iliad: Structure and interpretation

Click to make screen go away. It stays away if you check this:

This website-under-construction offers several features:

a map of ideas of the Iliad in the form of a 'thematic structure'. It is meant to bring out a pattern of large- and small scale thematic symmetries encompassing the whole poem, presented as a hierarchical tree-structure i.e. an expandable list.
A new interpretation of the Iliad based on this structure.
The Greek text plus a translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey plus Hesiod's Theogony and Works & Days. Greek text and translation are linked to each other by clicking on the line numbers.
a search engine and study tool which can select words or lines containing a given word from the Greek text or the translation and bookmark them, or perform an instant lookup in the Perseus database for meaning or grammatical form.
small extra's such as a load/savable notepad with a betacode-converter. Also load/savable bookmarks.
If opened by a up-to-date browser (not Firefox), the pages can be made into a progressive web app. This means all the pages are cached so they do not have to be reloaded and the app can be used offline (recommended).

Click or tap on the columns-icon in the header to bring down the columns-menu. Buttons in there switch in/out the corresponding columns with the map, Greek/English texts, commentary, helpfile or extra pages. Click outside the buttons to collapse the menu again. The detailed expandable list is under the 'Map' button, and can be expanded/collapsed by clicking on its + or - or by pressing keys '1'-'8'. The list links to Iliad lines by clicking on the text part. If the explanation page is visible (see columns menu), click on the light blue, encircled line nrs in the list to scroll there.
To get to the site map linking to other pages, click "pages" in the columns-menu once or twice.
For more how-to details, see the Helpfile on the right of the columns-menu.

NB:
- If you have a very slow device or internet connection there may be problems loading the pages.

Greek texts and their translations, except the Iliad, provided by Perseus Digital Library, with funding from The Annenberg CPB/Project. Original version available for viewing and download at Perseus.

The Iliad translation is the 1883 edition of "The Iliad of Homer" by Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf and Ernest Myers. Available through Project Gutenberg. Its language may be dated but it is the most precise translation I could find in the public domain.

Greek word lookup provided by the Perseus Word Study Tool.

All other texts, unless otherwise indicated:

For comments or questions, e-mail Jeroen.

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Thematic structure