War and the Iliad

War and the Iliad is a perfect introduction to the range of Homer's art as well as a provocative and rewarding demonstration of the links between literature, philosophy, and questions of life and death.

Simone Weil's The Iliad, or the Poem of Force is one of her most celebrated works -- an inspired analysis of Homer's epic that presents a nightmare vision of combat as a machine in which all humanity is lost. 

This edition brings together these two influential essays for the first time, accompanied by Benfey's scholarly introduction and an afterword by the great Austrian novelist Hermann Broch.