When I'd made my list of elements for illustrating the forthcoming Folio Society editions of The Iliad and The Odyssey in the translations by Emily Wilson, I'd marked down for the cover of The Iliad, 'The ransoming of Hector'.
To begin with I was thinking of a comprehensive image showing Achilles and the violated body of Hector. There's a lot going on in the relevant passages of the poem, and initially I included too much material. Of course all that got quite congested, so everything had to be made at a smaller scale, and was busier in a way I really don't like on a cover.
Here's an early draft of Achilles - top left - the body of Hector tethered by its heels to Achilles' chariot - bottom left - and one of the Keres - top - who are the spirit creatures drawn to the last moments of the dying at battlefields.
The section of the poem dealing with Achilles' violation of Hector's corpse is what most haunts me. In the aftermath of their fight there's a visceral explanation of Achilles threading through the dead man's ankle tendons with leather straps to tether the body to his chariot. The account is visceral and uncomfortable. You need neither the whole body nor even Achilles to be present to know that it's a key incident from the text. First of all I tried out this:
then reduced it further, to this:
Finally I began to simplify, so we could get a graphic clarity and an instant effect, adding the upside-down helmet fo catch the sense of the body being that of a soldier stripped off its armour after death. (Helmets have become a visual leitmotif of my work on this book.)
The drawing below is the closest of these roughs to how I think the image will work best compositionally. I like the geometry and tension of the straight and diagonal lines of the tethers:
I'd like, if permitted by the editor, to put the title on the cover. A bit like this:
The idea is to have a really strong graphic identity for both covers, linked into elements of the narratives which will be instantly recognisable to those in the know, but will also work for anyone not familiar with the stories, once they've read those particular passages. There's so much violence in the Iliad narrative and I want to reference that, but not in a way that's too much in the reader's face.
I'll sleep on all of this, and return to it afresh tomorrow with a clear view.
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