The Iliad (Paperback)

by Homer (Author), Robert Fitzgerald (Translator) "Agamemnon, Atreus' son, and Prince Akhilleus..." (more)
Key Phrases: battlefield runner, deepsea ships, forty black ships, Lord Zeus, Prince Akhilleus, Lord Hektor (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Mr. Fitzgerald has solved virtually every problem that has plagued translators of Homer. The narrative runs, the dialogue speaks, the military action is clear, and the repetitive epithets become useful text rather than exotic relics." --The Atlantic Monthly
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Review
“Fitzgerald has solved virtually every problem that has plagued translators of Homer. The narrative runs, the dialogue speaks, the military action is clear, and the repetitive epithets become useful text rather than exotic relics.” –Atlantic Monthly

“Fitzgerald’s swift rhythms, bright images, and superb English make Homer live as never before…This is for every reader in our time and possibly for all time.”–Library Journal

“[Fitzgerald’s Odyssey and Iliad] open up once more the unique greatness of Homer’s art at the level above the formula; yet at the same time they do not neglect the brilliant texture of Homeric verse at the level of the line and the phrase.” –The Yale Review

“What an age can read in Homer, what its translators can manage to say in his presence, is one gauge of its morale, one index to its system of exultations and reticences. The supple, the iridescent, the ironic, these modes are among our strengths, and among Mr. Fitzgerald’s.” –National Review

With an Introduction by Gregory Nagy


From the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; 1ST edition (June 28, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385059418
• ISBN-13: 978-0385059411
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #502,964 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

130 of 137 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Translation's the Key, June 23, 2002

By	Esquire (PA, USA) - See all my reviews

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.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An English verse translation without rival, June 18, 2000

By	Ernest Boehm (Des Plaines, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really good translation, January 20, 2002

By	Gilmoure "Gilmoure" (Sandia Park, NM) - See all my reviews

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.