How Meditations drew on The Iliad
A documented line of influence: Marcus Aurelius demonstrably engaged Homer’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Iliad
Homer · c. 750 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius · c. 175
Ancient RomeRelevance
7/10
On Meditations’s page
- When Marcus Aurelius quotes the "generations of leaves" at Meditations 10.34, he's reaching back to Iliad Book 6
- Homer's line — men rise and fall like the leaves of the forest — becomes his lever for facing his own mortality with composure
- Reading the simile in its original setting, spoken between two warriors before battle, shows you exactly what the emperor was meditating on
On The Iliad’s page
- Homer's most famous simile became a Stoic emperor's text for meditation
- The Iliad's "generations of leaves" (Book 6) — one generation falling, another springing up to replace it — is the image Marcus Aurelius returns to when he steadies himself against death
- He quotes the line directly and lists Homer among the authorities he draws on