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> I never had to read the _Iliad_ in high school, but I did have to read it for a college class in Ancient Greek history.

Aha! That's a completely different context than an English class. That's where the book belongs, when studying Greek history.

> I found it difficult and sometimes dull reading, but very interesting for the ideas with which it grappled.

[snipped all these deep, philosophical ideas]

Yeah, maybe. But then, as Sam said, having interesting ideas does not a good book make. Books are a bit more than just what ideas they present; it's also a matter of HOW they present them. Actually, if Iliad would've focused more on Achilles and less on the war, it would have been a lot more interesting. Instead, it liked to jump between the two (and then throw in stuff about the gods, and that to me was the worst - while certainly an interesting concept, it was contstantly "Gods say they won't interfere but do"), and that was dull. I did not care about any of the other characters, as half the time you'd get their life story a page before they were run through. And then another random Greek warrior would show up.

Anyway, that's just my take on The Iliad. While it may have had some important points and such, it had a terribly dull story filled with way too many characters who had no relevance to anything. Too much of the book was spent in battles, which were just a backdrop to what was really going on. So why spend so much time there? Eh...