Customer Reviews

The Iliad

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3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I am happy to see that this translation of The Iliad of Homer has remained in print. My copy is over 25 years old and I still regard it as my favorite. Mr. Lattimore has sought to preserve the meaning of the Greek words and the didactic hexameter rhythm, including the additional phrases (such as the warlike, breaker of horses etc.) that make the Iliad poetry to be recited, not read. I like the flow of the words and their cadence, and sometimes read aloud.

Also of importance is the introduction to the Iliad by Mr. Lattimore where he provides an analysis of the poem, the Iliad in the context of the story of Troy, the unity of the poem and the figures that populate this heroic tale. This book is not only an outstanding translation but is also a resource for understanding the Iliad. Many scholars have regarded Lattimore's as the finest translation of the Iliad and I think that time has proved this to be an accurate prediction.

Some general thoughts....

First, there are several reasons for translating the Iliad. Obviously, it is one of the greatest pieces of literature that has as much to offer modern readers as it did those of antiquity. 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.

There are other considerations beyond aesthetics. Recent scholarship has revealed that Homer has much to tell us about real places, people, ideas, actions and politics. Gone is the great Classical scholar Finley's view that the Homeric poems are mostly fictitious and cannot tell much about the heroic Bronze Age. Therefore, there is a need for an accurate, line-to-line translation that can convey the feel of the original meter and still use the full range of words, places and objects that can often be "streamlined" in an adaptation.

This is where Lattimore's translation comes in. This still is probably the most "accurate" translation, preserving the structure of the poem, the full meaning of the Greek words and the original "tone" of the Greek. If you're wading thru the original Greek and want to have something to check against, this translation wins hands down. Also, if your interest in Troy is historical/archaeological, Lattimore is a must. And to be perfectly honest, many, many people have loved the language itself, hailing this as THE classic translation that all others must be judged against.

That said, to just sit down and read the Iliad for sheer enjoyment's sake, 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. I suspect casual readers might be put off by the (entirely appropriate) academic feel of the work, and miss the probing intelligence of the translation, the brilliant attempt to convey the peculiarities of the original language and meter into modern form.

This is a notable achievement, but for those who might be looking for a less "formal" translation might be steered toward Fagles' translation, or for a heart-pounding, visceral read, to Stanley Lombardo's vivid translation.

The ILIAD of Homer is one of the bedrock tales of Western civilization, and Richmond Lattimore's 1951 translation achieves its stated purpose of remembering the four qualities of Homer that Matthew Arnold once set out as key for his translators to keep in mind:

"[Homer] is rapid, plain and direct in thought and expression, plain and direct in substance, and noble."

Taking place in the tenth and final year of the Trojan War, the ILIAD opens with the anger of Achilles at the great king Agamemnon for taking away his favorite concubine (a spoil of war). Each man's pride is too much: Agamemnon refuses to give back the girl and Achilles refuses to continue fighting. Since Achilles is the Greeks' greatest warrior, the fortunes of the Trojans markedly improve while he famously sulks in his tent. But the Greeks fight on, and such heroes as Diomedes, Aias (Ajax) and Odysseus continue the fight to sack Troy as return the queen Helen to her husband Menelaos, King of Argos. Over the lengthy yet colorful descriptions of battle, they are driven back to their ships by the Trojans, led by their prince and greatest warrior, Hektor (brother of Paris, who has stolen Helen with the help of Aphrodite).

The ILIAD is really the story of Achilles, and is his tragedy. Once the danger of defeat seems imminent, Agamemnon offers to give the girl back and make amends (as long as Achilles realizes who's still boss) but Achilles remains caught up in his prideful wrath. He eventually returns to the fight and drives the Trojans back inside their own walls, but the price he pays is dear.

The ILIAD is also notable for its depiction of the gods. Far from being above it all, Athena, Ares and their immortal siblings get right down on the beach and take sides in the war. You might think that a battlefield is no place for the goddess of love, but don't worry, Aphrodite soon learns the same. The Greeks will suffer, but the greater powers of Mt. Olympos are behind them, effectively making their victory inevitable.

Since Lattimore was trying to get as close to the Greek as he could, his English translation is less poetic than those of Robert Fitzgerald or, I imagine, Robert Fagles (who is next on my list). But it does have its own stately rhythm that should hardly be inaccessible to the modern college student or adult. For high schoolers, though, I would recommend reading one of the other translators first, as the first time one reads Homer, it should be for the story. And what a story!

Aside from Pope's, which sadly is very difficult to locate, Lattimore's Iliad is the best English Iliad ever made for a number of reasons. First, Lattimore translates the poem line by line, so that, if you want to follow the Greek text, you'll be able to do so with much greater facility than, Fagles, for example, who translates in verse "paragraphs" rather than lines. In Lattimore's careful, graceful rendering of Homer's prosody lends the verse authenticity without ever slipping into the pedantic. The line-by-line approach, moreover, most faithfully carries Homer's rhetoric and pace.

Second, Lattimore preserves Homer's formulas. Where a series of lines appears describing some event or passing some message, Homer packages those lines and repeats them virtually verbatim when the subject comes up again. Thus, for example, Agamemnon's speech in which he "tests" the resolve of the Greeks to raze Troy (with unfortunate results), by falsely urging them to drop ship and flee, is repeated almost exactly later in the poem when Agamemmnon really means it (2: 110-141; 9: 17-28). Similarly, each major character has a set of adjectives and adjectival phrases describing the character ("brilliant", "swift-footed" Achilles; Hector "of the shining helm" the "flowing-haired" Achaens, the "deep-benched" ships, etc.) These formulas accompany the characters and objects throughout the poem. Lattimore observes these formulas. (Fagles does too, frequently but not consistently. Fitzgerald generally does not.)

Third, Lattimore's rendering of the dactylic hexameter characteristic of Homer's verse, is amazing, at times bordering on the miraculous. Dactylic meters are generally awkward in English ("higgledy piggledy"). The virtousity, ease and fluidity that Lattimore acheives is something I wouldn't have believed possible before reading it here.

Because Lattimore tries throughout to translate what Homer said, rather than what one wishes he said (see Lattimore's introduction), the English verse is supple and aptly conveys what "makes it great." Moreover, the emotional and dramatic contexts are reliable. The butchering and slaughtering are immediate and terrible; the teeth-chattering fear of the heroes in the face of certain destruction prepares the many remarkable instances when a hero will flee rather than fight; the poignancy of Hector's grim certainty of his fate (as expressed in the famous scene in Book 6 where he "lets go" his heart's dearest treasure because he knows it is his destiny to do so) is dark and heartwrenching. Consider the famous speech of Achilles to Lycaon in Book 21, before Achilles cuts him down with a single stroke of his sword: After acknowledging that in a previous encounter, Achilles agreed to spare Lycaon and sell him into slavery instead, Achilles addresses Lycaon stoically, even calling Lycaon his "friend" before butchering him. Reminding Lycaon that that was then and this is now, Achilles points out that no one can survive his rage over Patroclus' death. "So, friend, you die also. Why all this clamor about it?/ Patroklos also is dead, who was far better than you are./ Do you not see what a man I am, so huge, so splendid/ and born of a great father, and the mother who bore me immortal?/ Yet even I have also my death and my strong destiny,/ and there shall be a dawn or an afternoon or a noontime/when some man in the fighting will take the life of me also,/ either with a spearcast or an arrow flown from the bowstring...." This speech is as moving and strange in English as it is in Greek. Nobody touches Lattimore in lyricism and profundity of diction in passages like this.

These are just a few of the many qualities that put Lattimore at the top of Homer's modern English translators. It is impossible to overstate the virtuosity of Lattimore's line. I hate comparisons of apples and oranges, even where they improbably fall from the same tree. That said, if I could only have one translation, it would be Lattimore's. Fagles' is very fine, and both reveal aspects of Homer's genius with a brilliance unknown before their separate appearances. Lattimore, however, renders the poem's diction, style and thematic exposition more closely than Fagles, and since Homer's poem iw what we want to read when we read it in English, this is the bottom line. (Fitzgerald doesn't compare.) But since we live in times of unprecedented abundance, I don't have to make that choice.

My only quibble: Lattimore tries, inconsistently, to transliterate names more "accurately," than in most versions. Thus, Achilles is "Achilleus;" Ajax is "Aias." Admirable sentiment. Awkward for the verse. I ignore it and "hear" the received versions when I'm reading Lattimore.

Of all the verse translations of Homer's Iliad that I have read, Lattimore's is certainly the finest. Though Robert Fitzgerald's translation is probably one of the most popular, I think Fitzgerald has taken too much liberties with the language, sprinkling his own metaphors like salt and pepper indiscriminately over the text and thereby distorting Homer's style in a very inexcusable fashion. Fagles's translation is also good, but a bit too "close". Even Homer's contemporaries know that this poem with a heroic age inretrievably lost in the tide of time. Even though Lattimore's translation may seem heavily formulaic and pedantic at the first glance, a little bit of patience and thought will help you in appreciating the power and beauty of this masterpiece.
This paperback edition is probably the only real edition out there. I still cannot understand why nobody bothers to print the hardcover editions from the 50s and 60s any longer. Those give much more space in the margin for notes and scribbles (and who can read the Iliad without being tempted to scribble a line or two!). However, since the paperback is all there is one must be content...
Those who read the Iliad will not fail to see why Homer is considered the first creative genius in the Western Canon. The Iliad is a flawless masterpiece sustaining the same tone from the beginning to the end, tragic in a sense that the tragedy is too great for tears. Book 22, the climactic book of the Iliad, is THE most powerful crescendo ever constructed. There is no doubt to the outcome: Hector WILL die and Troy WILL fall--these are given in Book I. The Iliad does not rely on suspense to captivate the audience. Rather, the experience of reading the Iliad may be summarized as the twillight region between day and night, during which we the readers know what will happen--wait for it to happen--and meanwhile, when faced to death as all the Homeric heroes, reflect on the meaning of life, of death, of glory, and of our common lot.

Recently the market has been overwhelmed by the Fagles "translation" of the Iliad and the accompanying clamour of praise that the Fagles "translation" has attracted has made it seem that Fagles' version has made redundant all previous translations. The problem with Fagles is that the praise is undeserved as the Fagles version is a "paraphrase" which strays too far from the actual Greek text for it to be a translation.

I own the Iliad in both the original (Homeric) Greek (based on the Oxford version), with a parallel text in modern Greek. The Lattimore translation is the best one available in the English language without exception.

Anyone who wants to get a feel for the Iliad in English cannot go past the Lattimore translation. Hopefully the Fagles fad will fade....

While some may indeed prefer the poetics of Pope, for those approaching The Iliad for the first time or anew, Richmond Lattimore's translation is both accessible and memorable. It will also impress on readers the various mnemonics that are such an important part of how this oral work came to be handed down.

Unlike others, I do not find what amounts to blank verse in sections to be unpoetic. Unromantic, yes. But this is war. Lattimore's translation, completed in the shade of the atomic age and the Cold War, conveys the hope implicit in the embassy passage as well as the inexorable march to tragedy and the questions left to survivors. I know of no other English translation that communicates this as clearly to modern readers.

Especially after the Brad Pitt movie of Summer, 2004 which reduced the epic to two busy weeks, this is important reading. Lattimore's language captures the pace (no less horrifying because of its languor) and allows readers to piece together a reasonable understanding that could be shared with listeners in the firelight of millennia past.

Read others if multiple translations interest you, but start here.

Everything you have heard about the importance of Homer to all of subsequent western thought.....IT'S ALL TRUE! Homer is the very foundation upon which everything else in western philosophy and literature rests. While it is impossible to capture the rhythm of Dactyllic Hexameter in English, Lattimore's translation is nothing short of profound. Let me make a suggestion to anyone who is interested in reading Homer, but is not well versed in Greek mythology. Before beginning the ILIAD, consult a good reference guide that will give you all of the "background" information on this work (such as the judgment of Paris, the abduction (?) of Helen, etc). The ILIAD begins in medias res, (in the middle of things) and provides no background info whatsoever. Journey back to 1,200 BC to the ninth year of the Trojan War...join the millions of readers throughout history who have lent their imaginations to the ancient bard Homer & have come to understand the wrath of Achilles.... an anger that is by one account rather childish, but on another so very human. Read Homer, if at all possible. If it is not possible for you to read Homer, then by all means MAKE IT POSSIBLE! This book is that important.

I recognize and agree that Lattimore's translations of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" are the MOST TRUE to Homer and Ancient Greek we have ever seen.

Two minor examples: he uses long verse lines (like Homer), maintains Homer's sentence structure and he keeps and repeats all the Epitaphs exactly as they appear in Homer.

Lattimore's choice of words and sentence organization can sometimes seem jumbled and complicated and his manner/style somewhat archaic, it is because Lattimore is showing how Homer "sounds" in English as if you were translating it directly and perfectly from the Greek. That is Lattimore's aim, to render Homer as EXACTLY as possible. For this I am grateful...he has helped many to develop a more scholarly aptitude.

This aside,

I give it 3 stars because I find that his translation is not condusive to reading. Lattimore's 1950's American English is out of date and the story moves excessively slow. I often find Lattimore's Homer stodgy, hard, complicated, and often boring!


My favorites are still Stanley Lombardo's (Prosaic Verse) and E.V. Rieu's (Novel-like Prose) versions. Both full of fire-like Excitement, shimmering Beauty and monumental Drama.

I always recommend having 2 or 3 different versions of Homer on shelf, Lattimore is always on mine...not for reading enjoyment though but only for comparing.

Thanks

Richmond Lattimore's translation of The Iliad is the strongest, most resonant version I have yet read. It doesn't have the energy or the high poetry of the Fagles or Fitzgerald translations, but it is nevertheless the most moving and the most rewarding to read.

Lattimore's translation approximates as closely as possible what it would have been like to hear Homer speak for himself, in long, rhythmic lines that leisurely extol the story of Achilles's wrath. One feature that I found helpful was Lattimore's direct transliteration of Greek names into English, rather than using their Latin equivalents. Here, Achilles is Achilleus, Menelaus is Menelaos, Hephaestus is Hephaistos, and so forth. Printing the names so that they can be pronounced as they were in the original Greek helped in separating this reading of Homer from those I had experienced before. And unlike the Fitzgerald translation, these names are not encumbered with accent marks and other distracting apparatus.

Lattimore's introduction is also worthwhile. He spends a few pages examining each of the many major figures--Odysseus, Diomedes, Agamemnon, Paris, Hektor--as well as describing the cultural context of Homer's epic. And index of characters and where in the text they can be found makes this, along with the introduction, an excellent edition for students and beginners.

But the chief attraction is, of course, the story itself. As I said, this is neither the most energetic nor poetic of the English versions, but it is certainly the best and most faithful to the original. Despite having read The Iliad several times before, I found myself moved and excited again and again by the often poignant scenes of war that Homer presents.

If you only read one English version of The Iliad, make this it. Highly recommended.