How The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling drew on The Iliad
A documented line of influence: Henry Fielding 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
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Henry Fielding · 1749
EnlightenmentRelevance
7/10
On The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling’s page
- The mock-epic only works because the real epic is so familiar — and Fielding names Homer (with Aristotle) as his model
- The churchyard brawl and the Mrs. Partridge episode are Iliad battle-scenes in disguise, narrated with Homer's own extended similes
- Knowing how Homer pitches a duel between heroes is what makes Fielding's grand treatment of a village fistfight land as comedy
On The Iliad’s page
- Fielding made the Iliad the engine of his comedy — the model he names alongside Aristotle in Tom Jones
- Homer's battle-scenes and extended heroic similes get lifted wholesale into mock-epic brawls: the churchyard fight, the Mrs. Partridge episode
- Apply Achilles-grade grandeur to a country squabble and you get the mock-heroic — the whole joke depends on the Iliad standing behind it
More connections
Around The Iliad
Around The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
- The History of Tom Jones, a FoundlingDavid Copperfield
- The History of Tom Jones, a FoundlingVanity Fair
- Don QuixoteThe History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
- The History of Tom Jones, a FoundlingPride and Prejudice
- The OdysseyThe History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
- The AeneidThe History of Tom Jones, a Foundling