First, this is not a screenplay for the movie, "Troy." Nor is it a "book" about the Trojan War. This is a translation of a written version of (approximately) 3,000 year old oral poem composed by an obscure and anonymous Greek poet about the men and women involved in a siege around the city of Troy (in current west Turkey). It begins with a quarrel between the Greek leader, Agamemnon, and one of his captains, Achilles, and ends with the Trojan leader, Priam, begging for his son's, Hector, dead body from that same captain. In between these scenes is bloody and heroic battle presented ironically in a package of breathtakingly beautiful poetry.
This is probably not the greatest war poem ever written, but it surely is the greatest anti-war poem ever written. When you complete it on the one hand you will be drained, exhausted and feeling like you were there in the midst of the battle. At the same time you will be exhilarated that you now know what a masterpiece is.
Up until the publication of this translation, the translation by Robert Fagles, a professor at Princeton University, has been considered by many to be the best of several available.
With several translations available to the English-speaking reader, it is difficult to make a choice. Some would say that this latest translation by Stephen Mitchell further burdens the reader's choices. I would argue that rather than burden, it lightens the load. Here is why I think so.
The translator is experienced in making older texts come to life. Among them are "Gilgamesh" at the "Tao Te Ching."
This translation is more contemporary having been published in 2011 versus the venerable translation of Robert Fagles at 1990.
Mitchell's translation is shorter. The Fagles edition translates all 24 books of the poem in over 600 pages. The more economically Mitchell takes only 400 "sharper and leaner" pages. Mr. Mitchell accomplishes his whittling of Homer by accepting the view of an internationally known British scholar and classicist, Professor Martin L. West, regarding "probable interpolations by rhapsodies, spliced into it during the decades or centuries after it was (first) written." For the latter, Mitchell eliminated these interpolations as well as with other passages which he considered not authentic to the original.
Mitchell also eliminated the fixed epithets repeated ad nauseam in Homer such as "flashing-helmeted Hector" or "single-footed horses." For Mitchell, these features distract in the English translation from the main subject of the line.
Both contain Pronouncing Glossaries.
So with the above in mind, what translation should you choose? Surely not by length alone. Your objective should to find a translation in which you will find joy in reading and learning. To choose you must compare translations.
To assist you, here is one of my favorite passages. It is a portion of the poem (Book 7, Line 270-286 in Fagles; Lines 225-232 in Mitchell) where Hector taunts Ajax as they prepare for battle. I have included first the translation of Fagles and then Mitchell for you to compare.
Flagles:
"A flash of his helmet as rangy Hector shook his head:
`Ajax, royal son of Telamon, captain of armies,
Don't toy with me like a puny, weak-kneed boy
Or a woman never trained in works of war!
War--I know it well, and the butchery of men.
Well I know, shift to the left, shift to the right
My tough tanned shield. That's what the real drill,
Defensive fighting means to me, I know it all, how to charge in the rush of plunging horses-
I know how to stand and fight to the finish,
Twist and lunge in the War-god's deadly dance.
On guard!
Big and bluff as you are, I've no desire to hit you
Sniping in on the sly-
I'd strike you out in the open, strike you now!"
Mitchell:
"Hector stepped up and answered, `Achaean, don't try
To frighten me like some untested boy
Or a woman who doesn't know the first thing about warfare.
I know about fighting. I know how to kill a man;
I know how to swing my shield to the right or left;
I know how to charge straight into the frenzy of chariots
Attacking or fleeing in terror; and I know how
To step in the deadly dance of hand-to-hand combat.
On guard now; seeing the man that you are, I won't
Sneak a shot, but will openly cut you down."
Difficult choice, eh? Note that from Mitchell is not only more economic it is more focused on the action. To me, it reads more like modern day fiction. Fagles, although longer, seems richer and although I am not a poet, it comes across to me as a more beautiful expression of feeling with a poetic style and rhythm.
Your choice?
"It lies in the lap of the gods." (Book 17)
