The Iliad (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Homer (Author), Peter Jones (Editor), D.C.H. Rieu (Editor), E.V. Rieu (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: April 29, 2003

One of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer's Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode of the Trojan War. At its center is Achilles, the greatest warrior-champion of the Greeks, and his conflict with his leader Agamemnon. Interwoven in the tragic sequence of events are powerfully moving descriptions of the ebb and flow of battle, the besieged city of Ilium, the feud between the gods, and the fate of mortals.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Greek (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Homer is believed to have lived c. 754-700 b.c. in Ionia and to be the author of the earliest works of Western literature.

E. V. Rieu was a celebrated translator from Latin and Greek, and editor of Penguin Classics from 1944-1964. His son, D. C. H. Rieu has revised his work.\

Peter Jones is former lecturer in classics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised edition (April 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140447946
• ISBN-13: 978-0140447941
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,444 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Homer was probably born around 725BC on the Coast of Asia Minor, now the coast of Turkey, but then really a part of Greece. Homer was the first Greek writer whose work survives.

He was one of a long line of bards, or poets, who worked in the oral tradition. Homer and other bards of the time could recite, or chant, long epic poems.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars There are better translations, August 31, 2004

By 

Christopher H. Hodgkin "chodgkin" (Friday Harbor, Wa United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Iliad (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

The Iliad is a magnificent poem, and has, appropriately, been translated numerous times. Rieu's translation is a somewhat older translation, and it is showing its age.

Whatever your desires, there are better translations.

If you want the poem in poetic form that most closely tracks the majesty and glory of the original, choose either the Lattimore or the more difficult to find Fitzgerald translations. Lattimore is the more generally preferred translation for scholars who don't read Homer in the original Greek.

If you want a more colloquial version, but one that still brings poetic grandeur to the poem, choose the newer Fagles translation.

If you want an easier to read, prose translation that doesn't have to adapt its language to the poetic form, Butler's translation is probably your best bet.

If you want the most literally accurate translation, you could choose the Loeb Classical Library edition, though it is more costly and in several volumes -- it has the Greek on the left page and the translation on the right, and because it is designed to assist Greek students with their translation it tends to be the most literal translation.

But for the most Homeric experience outside of reading it in Greek, the Lattimore translation is the way to go. It is a bit more difficult than Fagles or Butler, but worth the effort.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comments on the translation, September 30, 2005

By 

T. Bachman (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Iliad (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

The Iliad is an intoxicating masterpiece, and well worth reading. I read it with my kids over the course of a year and all of us were totally captivated.

I have compared a pretty good number of translations with each other trying to ascertain which was most faithful, and I disagree with the reviewer on here who puts this translation down the list a ways. I think this is the best translation for the general reader. The Lattimore is a fairly difficult go; the Fagles is an easy enough read but has the disadvantage of not being all that faithful to the original. For the average person, I think the Rieu/Jones is the best. It combines fidelity to the original with a graceful comprehensibility.

Good luck.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really sings too you, February 20, 2006

By 

GG Gawain (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Iliad (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I have read all other translations of Homer's Iliad, including Alexander Pope's and Fagles, and can unequivocally say that E.V. Rieu's translation is the most readable and forceful. It reads like a novel, not iambic pentameter verse, and therefore is more enriching to the modern 21st century reader.