Based on the 1958 book The Wrath of Achilles, The Iliad of Homer by I.A. Richards. This episode begins with an announcer's voiceover sumarizing the first five episodes as their titles, in turn, are superimposed over slides of Greek sculpture. Thereafter, "Professor and Lowell Television Lecturer at Harvard University" I. A. Richards appears and continues reading from his abridged translation of the Iliad, The Wrath of Achilles. He begins with book eighteen and Hephaestus's making of Achilles's new armor. He announces that he will not be reading the description of Achilles's shield, as it is too descriptive to be easily read aloud. Richards dwells on the contrast between Achilles's behavior earlier in the epic and after Patroclus's death. He dismisses questions about how these two sides of Achilles fit together as the narrow concern of scholars. Noting, however, that on occasion academic work can heighten enjoyment, Richards does recommend two scholarly works: Gilbert Murray's The Rise of the Greek Epic and Maurice Bowra's Tradition and Design in the Iliad, both from Oxford University Press. He introduces two statues to represent Priam's sons and moves on to the reading from books nineteen through twenty-one, beginning with Patroclus's death arrangements and Achilles making up with Agamemnon, then continuing to the battle and Achilles's slaughter of Priam's sons. Summary and select metadata for this record was submitted by John Marx & Mark Cooper.
