I read an abridged prose version of this in my Greek myth phase and excerpts in freshling year's Classic and Medieval Western lit. Bernard Knox's introduction was fascinating--how did (Homer) compose a preliterate work that existed best or only in performance? what is the evidence of literacy in its context or content (someone does send a message scratched in a folded tablet)? how can men and gods, free will and destiny, work together? How much can Thucydides and archaeology tell us about the actual Troy?
I know about the judgment of Paris, about how Odysseus pretended to be mad but not enough to plow up infant Telemachus (unless that's in The Odyssey) and how Odysseus arranged for Achilles to betray his identity also to be pressed into service, about Paris's cowardice and Hector's bravery. I wonder where all the fatted cows came from. But if The Iliad has as many begats as I dread and is more about Achilles's rage than anything else, I might be done.
Unfortunately, I think that's where I might stop. I read the first several hundred lines of the actual poem and, forgive me, had no idea who was speaking about what. It doesn't help that I was on a plane, with or without earplugs, but still. I might have slightly given up.
Instead I listened (through earplugs and earphones) to the Kiera Knightley "Pride and Prejudice" and attempted my first SuDoku puzzles in Hemispheres. Then I tried again. I'm not overly hopeful.