In the midst of World War II, Rachel Bespaloff published her essay on Homer's Iliad, immediately capturing the attention of exiles like Hermann Broch. With her intricately woven literary and philosophical examination of the Greek epic, she succeeded in illuminating the existential questions of the condition humaine in both peace and war within a compact space, demonstrating the radical contemporaneity of the Iliad. By emphasizing the ambivalence of war with its deathly yet life-giving qualities, she challenges today's reader and sharpens their perspective on a world still dominated by violence.