ABSTRACT
Julia Kristeva’s analysis of abjection and the corpse draws our attention to themes explored throughout the Iliad and at particularly important moments of the narrative: the battlefield is an abject landscape in which human bodies mingle with the non-human stuff of the environment, and warriors’ living identities dissolve. If we read the Sirens episode from Odyssey 12 alongside Kristeva’s work, we get a sense of how listeners might react to such abject descriptions: they will experience both repugnance and fascination.
