The Iliad
The Iliad surfaces across two Taylor Swift songs, through allusion and thematic echo.
Appears in 2 songs
Associated with Homer
“So they set my life in flames, I regret to say”
Angela & Uncle Jerry note that 'set my life in flames' echoes the burning of Troy in the Iliad and related classical texts. Uncle Jerry identifies this as one of the key events Cassandra predicted, the destruction of Troy by fire, and connects the lyric directly to the classical narrative. The Iliad is named as one of the primary texts in which Cassandra appears.
“You're my Achilles heel”
Uncle Jerry identifies 'You're my Achilles heel' as an allusion to the myth of Achilles, whose mother dipped him in the River Styx to make him invulnerable, holding him by the heel which remained his only weak point. In the Iliad, Paris shoots Achilles in the heel and kills him. Taylor uses the image to say that the beloved is her point of vulnerability, the one place where love can wound or destroy her. Uncle Jerry reads this alongside the bridge's other classical references (the Fates, the golden age) to show Taylor connecting love's vulnerability to ancient and heroic narrative.