We’re studying ancient Greeks as we head down the
homestretch of this semester and totally enjoying Rosemary Sutclif’s Black Ships Before Troy, her rendering
of The Iliad.
It had been a long, long time since I’d read Homer (or even
a re-telling of Homer). I overdosed on Greek literature as a young adult. We
read a lot of Greek drama and The Odyssey
in my senior high literature class, and then I seemed to get both The Iliad and The Odyssey (not to mention Oedipus)
over and over as a literature major in college. After a while, it just felt
like…well, homework.
Encountering Homer again after all these years, and in a
re-telling for younger readers, has been utterly delightful. I opted to turn Black Ships into a read-aloud because…well,
it’s a telling of The Iliad, for
goodness’ sake, based on an epic poem by a bard who himself knew the story from
ancient oral traditions. Sutclif’s prose has a definite music to it.
(For those interested, I’m supplementing our reading time by
having the sweet girl read up on the various gods and goddesses encountered in
the story. After our read-aloud time, she reads assigned pages in D’Aulaire’s Greek Mythology and writes up what she
learns about the given character. I’m having her keep a list of the major immortal
players.)
The story really is thrilling, the characters so relatable.
I’m reading it in my best style, sometimes just letting the prose carry us
along with its high, galloping drama. Yesterday I read at lunch so D., home
from work, could enjoy it too. When I paused for breath in the middle of a
chapter, the sweet girl exclaimed into the sudden silence: “This is the most
exciting story ever!”
Gotta love those learning moments when the past feels vivid
enough to be stalking around your kitchen.
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