Customer Reviews

The Iliad (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics)

5 star:		(181)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I won't try to give yet another summary of the Iliad's plot nor give my insignificant opinion on the importance of Homer to Western Culture. More important is to discuss this translation and the translation of Homer in general.

When it comes to classic works of poetry in translation, such as those of Homer, Vergil, Dante and others, the translation makes all the difference. The type of translation, whether in rhyming verse, blank verse, prose etc., whether it is a strict line by line or more liberal translation, whether the wording and idioms are old fashioned or modern, can play such a great role that one translation may be completely different than another. This fact is probably often overlooked and attributes to the neglect of these classics, since a bad or difficult translation makes the poem seem tedious or dull.

Since Chapman's first translation of Homer into English in 1611 there have been dozens of others. Chapman's translation remains a classic, though its heavy and elaborate rhyming Elizabethan style and old wording make it quite laborious to read today. The next great translation was that of the renowned Enlightenment poet Alexander Pope; his Iliad was published progressively between 1715 and 1720. Pope's translation is in rhyming verse with his heroic couplet and is eminently poetic. It is considered the greatest translation of Homer into English (Dr. Johnson called it "the noblest version of poetry which the world has ever seen") but it is not as plain and straightforward as Homer apparently is in the original. It is mostly for this reason that Pope's translation has been critized as being more the work of the poet Pope than the poet Homer.

Of the more recent verse translations a few are worth recommendation. The latest translation is usually better than its predecessors, though each one is different. That of Richmond Lattimore takes a strict approach. His verse lines are long and the syntax unfortunately seems somewhat unnatural because he is attempting to imitate the stress patterns and flow of the original Greek hexameter. His translation tries to stay as close to the original Greek as possible and retain the form of epic language. The next translation is the one here, that of Robert Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald's translation is more modern, uses a shorter verse line and a natural English syntax. His translation is much easier to read and still retains the nobility of an epic poem. Finally, there is the translation of Robert Fagles. His translation is in blank verse, modern, rapid, simple and flowing. The noble simplicity of Greek style that the art historian Winkelmann so praised should also be found in a good translation of Homer. Like Fitzgerald, Fagles strives towards this and most approaches the ideal set out by the English poet and scholar Matthew Arnold for a translation of Homer: "Homer is rapid in his movement, Homer is plain in his words and style, Homer is simple in his ideas, Homer is noble in his manner." Fagles also uses the accepted Latin form of most Greek names: rather than "Akhilleus" he uses Achilles, rather than "Kyklops" he uses Cyclops. Lattimore and Fitzgerald sometimes annoyingly use the Greek versions, for no valid reason. They should have followed Arnold's advice on this point, who called such unnatural effect "pedantry" and claimed that the insistance on using the Greek variant for well-known names makes us "rub our eyes and call out 'How exceedingly odd!'." Finally, the narrative prose translations are in my opinion the remotest from epic poetry and should be avoided, especially since there are good verse translations available.

Robert Fagles's translation of Homer's Iliad is spiritually if not literally true to the original. Both versions repeat set speeches and descriptions in precisely the same words, and the translation exhibits a fairly regular rhythmic beat. But Homer's Greek was chanted, and the set passages were like refrains in which listeners could, if they chose, join in as a chorus. In English, the repetitions sometimes become tedious, especially when the same speech is given three times in two pages, as in the relay of Zeus's orders in Book II. Especially noteworthy is Bernard Knox's long and fascinating Introduction, a masterpiece of literary criticism and scholarship which conveys Homer's grim attitude toward war, the interplay of divine and human will, and the ancient concepts of honor, courage, and virility in the face of the stark finality of death. Knox also includes a succinct explanation of the quantitative, rather than accentual, basis of Greek (and Latin) verse. For easy readability, Fagles's translation is without rival. For elegance and poetry, however, I recommend Richmond Lattimore's older but still gripping and fluent translation.

I think I must have read every major translation of the Iliad by now. They all have something to recommend them. There are some to which I will never return. I think I would rate Robert Fagles translation as the best. All of which will afford some context when I say that Lombardo is a must read. Enough glowing things have been said here by other reviewers, so I will refrain from commenting over much on the translation per se.

What I will say is this. I SAW Book I of Lombardo's translation enacted on the stage in New York about a year and a half ago. If EVER one needed a reminder that the first auditors of this tale were listeners and not readers and that the Iliad was composed first and foremost FOR listeners, actually seeing Book I brought to life was it. It was magnificent. I had read Lombardo in preparation for the play. I LOVED it -- the immediacy of it, the currency, the urgency, the sheer page turning pace into which he rendered the Iliad. But actually seeing it? It is something I shall never forget. The audience was actually laughing outloud at certain points -- and we forget, don't we, that there is much humour in the Iliad? That laughter brought a sense of community. And it was actually possible, closing your eyes, to imagine yourself transported back in time, listening to a retelling of the Iliad -- so very, very long ago.

Traditionalists will no doubt have MAJOR problems with Lombardo. I consider myself to be reasonably traditional, but I fairly EMBRACED this translation. But I can imagine many will, like my father, run with horror from lines like:

"Now get this straight. I swear a formal oath:
.......
When every last Greek desperately misses Achilles,
Your remorse won't do any good then,
When Hector the man-killer swats you down like flies.
And you will eat your heart out
Because you failed to honour the best Greek of all."

Or:

"I've never seen men like those, and never will,
........
The strongest men who ever lived on earth, the strongest,
And they fought with the strongest, with wild things
From the mountains, and beat the daylihts out of them.
I was their companion......"

But I LOVED it -- I found my heart pounding and my blood racing at points. Buy this book and settle down in your favorite chair for a great read -- oh, and buckle your seat-belt.

The Iliad is one of the greatest treasures of Western Civilization-and not just because a teacher told you it was. On the surface, it offers raw emotions, visceral action sequences and colorful characters you admire and hate, often at the same time. But it is much, much deeper than that. The scene where Hector bids his young wife good-bye and holds up his infant son to the gods, praying that the boy will one day be a better man than ever he himself was, has never been equaled as a statement of what it means to be a man, husband or father. The debates about honor and duty are still the same we face every day. The humanity, insight and profound philosophy are remarkable-especially for a work now 3,000 years old.

The problem? How do you convey all that power? How do you do so in a way that captures the feel of original?

Iliad translations have started to come fast and furious, as every ten years or so someone tries to tackle the monumental task of bringing the poem to modern readers. The process isn't helped by the fact that the text was already 300 years old to the classical Greeks like Aristotle, Sophocles and Euripides-making it as vaguely old-fashioned as Shakespeare is to us. Should it sound antiquated to us, too? If you really want a line by line translation, one that has some kind of meter that approaches the Greek original, the obvious choice is Lattimore's classic translation. It has the side benefit now of being somewhat dated in its English usage too. That said, for just a good ol' read of the Iliad, Lattimore isn't even my third choice. For all its accuracy, I've always felt I was reading a textbook, written by a classics scholar rather than an honest-to-goodness writer.

Lombardo, on the other hand, is my preferred translation for sitting back and reading what is still a rip-roaring adventure (with enough deep thoughts to give it extra weight). Lombardo confesses there really is no way to adequately convey the "musicality" of the original, and goes on to re-cast it in freer poetry, based on natural speech. He's built up his translation thru multiple performances of the poems, with drum accompaniment, in public places, and his Iliad is honed to a razor sharp edge. The musty old poem students rolled their eyes at becomes a terrifying, beautiful beast that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go. It is so immediate, trilling and relevant. Lombardo's translation is an Iliad you will feel, not just respect.

Pick up the Lombardo translation and you will understand immediately why this work is still called the cornerstone of Western culture.

I own two copies of The Iliad. I own the Lattimore translation for study, and the Fagles translation for love of the story.

Translating ancient Greek is tough work. The author must constantly fight the battle to match the *meaning* of the original and the *feel* of the original in a language built for a very different culture and time.

Lattimore was invaluable when I was translating passages myself for college. He comes closest to writing ancient Greek in clear English. But when I want to lose myself in the story and action and feel myself swept away by the rage of Achilles, I reach for Fagles. He, more than any other translator I have read, carries the pace and force of the original Homeric Greek in an English that breathes life into the work without calling attention to itself.

Out of the various translations I've read of the Illiad (Fagles, Lattimore, Butler, Lombardi, Pope) Fitzgerald's does the best job at sucking me in and making me forget I'm reading and just flow along with the story. I also like how Fitzgerald uses what I assume are the Greek forms of the names such as Aias instead of Ajax and Akhilleus instead of Achilles. The language and layout of the poetry also adds a historical feel to it all. While this is a modern English translation that doesn't try to replicate the actual rythems of the Greek original, it makes me feel I'm reading an epic where other translations seem to be just a poem.

When Fitzgerld translated the Illiad his goal was to get the feeling of the work. When you read Fiztgerald's Illiad you imagine the velocity of Achilles the runner and feel the heat of his rage, you understand the craftyness of Crooked minded Odyesses and the hubris of Aggamemmon.

I have read a most verse translation of the Illiad and this one best captures the emoions and motion of this poem. Fitzgeralds translation is not as exact to the Greek in word for word sense as Richmond Lattimore's, but it is exacting in how it presents its characters in this story and struggles they face.

The Illiad is famous for its repeated phrasing, and epitaph for the characters, Fitzgerald chose the best way to translate the repetion in the poem to fit the characters persona so that they became effective in conveying the soul of the characters.

This Illiad is great for the first time reader as well as those who have read the Illiad before. This is a fresh easy to read version modern in its language but capturing anchient themes of Homer.

This is one of those ten books that I would be stranded on a desert Island with. This story has passed the test of time and Fitzgeralds translation is as timeless, a true classic.

I also suggest his translation of the Aenied and Odyessy

History shows us that "standard" translations are really translations for the time. As good as Pope's translation of the Iliad is - and it's good enough to stand on its own as an English poem - it definitely smacks of its time, particularly in how it moves and in its concern for rhetorical balance. Fagles has at least given me the Iliad of my own time. I read it the first time with part of me saying, "This is *so* good, can it last?" I have no idea. What impresses me so much is that it is undoubtedly wonderful poetry - poetry that makes you marvel at word choice and rhetorical construction - and yet it moves with the speed of an adventure novel. In other words, it exemplifies (as no other translation has for me) what scholars have been telling us about Homer for centuries. I don't understand classical Greek. I can't read Homer in the original, but I believe Fagles has given me something very, very close indeed.

Fortunately, Homer is so wonderful that even fairly imaginative renderings of the text, like Fagles', can't obscure his genius.

I guess I have a bit of a problem with Fagles' translation. When I read Homer, I want to read Homer, not Robert Fagles re-writing Homer. This version reminds me of the comment made to Alexander Pope after he published his version of "The Iliad" - "a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer".

This translation is kind of a modern play on the Fitzgerald - something of an "artistic" version rendered into a kind of de rigeur semi-elliptical poetry-speak, relying on a reconfiguration of lines and sentences, replacement of Homer's own phrases, etc. If that's your bag, by all means get this.

But for me, the best translation out there is that which translates Homer as faithfully as possible consistent with comprehensible English. Fagles' cavalier handling of the source text eliminates this as the "best" translation for me.

Both the Loeb and Lattimore versions are very faithful, but I think some readers may find them fairly difficult, and then stop reading the book altogether, which would be a great shame since The Iliad is well worth reading even in the worst translation.

My two cents is that the translation out there which does the best job of combining fidelity to the original with readability is the Jones/Rieu put out by Penguin. It doesn't have the packaging of the Fagles nor the great essay by Bernard Knox in the front, but I think it does the best job at maintaining transparency, really letting Homer shine through. (But if you have the stomach for the Loeb, you could go hardcore and try that, too. But don't try this unless you're familiar with the entire story first...).

Whatever translation you get, I also recommend buying a CliffNotes to get the necessary background information. Another great resource is Malcolm Willcock's commentary, which I used while I was reading this. If you're going to take the time to read a classic, you might as well try to get everything out of it you can.

Good luck. I hope this review helped someone.

Lets set a parameter first. The Iliad was designed to be part of an oral history. Slaves told it to Nobles, so anyone who reads it is not actually experiancing it in its original form. Okay? Okay. The Derek Jacobi and Fagles(sp?) team work on this project is inspired. Fagles translation bring all the power, glory, blood, and sinew of the piece to life. This is not some staid, collection of dried flowers, and dusty phrasing. This is passion, power and fury, wrapped in violence anger and blood. This is the Iliad. Derek Jacobi delivers with the depth and feeling that lets you know why his knighthood was long overdue. He knew when to thunder, and when to whisper. His descriptions of feasts had me eating lamb for weeks after listening, and his narratives of battles superceded any modern day action flick. Fagles Created and Jacobi delivered. If you want your children to love greek myths and history get this tape, sit them down in front of the stereo, and watch as Sir Jacobi's voice pours from the speakers, wraps them in a world of imagination and suspense, and carries them from the confines of our techie world of entertainment into the limitless horizons of their mind.