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Homer

The Iliad: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Hardcover – October 11, 2011

by Homer (Author), Stephen Mitchell (Translator)

4.6 126 ratings

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TOLSTOY CALLED THE ILIAD A miracle; Goethe said that it always thrust him into a state of astonishment. Homer’s story is thrilling, and his Greek is perhaps the most beautiful poetry ever sung or written. But until now, even the best English translations haven’t been able to re-create the energy and simplicity, the speed, grace, and pulsing rhythm of the original.

In Stephen Mitchell’s Iliad, the epic story resounds again across 2,700 years, as if the lifeblood of its heroes Achilles and Patroclus, Hector and Priam flows in every word. And we are there with them, amid the horror and ecstasy of war, carried along by a poetry that lifts even the most devastating human events into the realm of the beautiful.

Mitchell’s Iliad is the first translation based on the work of the preeminent Homeric scholar Martin L. West, whose edition of the original Greek identifies many passages that were added after the Iliad was first written down, to the detriment of the music and the story. Omitting these hundreds of interpolated lines restores a dramatically sharper, leaner text. In addition, Mitchell’s illuminating introduction opens the epic still further to our understanding and appreciation.

Now, thanks to Stephen Mitchell’s scholarship and the power of his language, the Iliad’s ancient story comes to moving, vivid new life.

Print length

544 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Atria Books
Publication date

October 11, 2011
Dimensions

6.25 x 1.7 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

9781439163375
ISBN-13

978-1439163375
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Stephen Mitchell’s magnificent new translation of the Iliad reminds us that there is always a new and different way to read and interpret the great classics, and that they need to be reinvigorated from generation to generation, just as we need to be reminded that they are, however venerated, above all stories: exciting, full of life and great characters, in short great entertainment, not just great monuments of culture or the Western canon. Mr. Mitchell has accomplished this difficult feat wonderfully well, and produced a book which is a joy to read and an Iliad for this generation.” —Michael Korda, D. Litt., author of Hero, Ike, and Ulysses S. Grant

“Stephen Mitchell has done a marvelous thing here: he has given fresh energy and poetic force to a work that perennially repays our attention. Without the Iliad the West would be a vastly poorer place; Homer’s achievement speaks to every successive generation with its unflinching understanding of the essential tragic nature of life. Mitchell’s translation is a grand accomplishment.”
-- Jon Meacham, author of American Lion

“Mitchell’s wonderful new version of the Iliad is a worthy addition to his list of distinguished renditions of the classics.” —Peter Matthiessen

“A sturdy, muscular, and nuanced translation that will surely bring many new readers to this great work.”—John Banville, author of The Sea

“Mitchell’s translation is a brilliant accomplishment. It captures the fierce energy, rhythms, and powerful narrative of Homer’s Greek in vivid and compelling English.” —Elaine Pagels, author of The Gnostic Gospels

“Mitchell’s five-beat line is a startlingly strong alternative to other translators’ attempts to capture the inimitably mellifluous flow of Homer’s Greek. Mitchell fits a meter to the poem, but also the poem to the meter, paring away words that could not work in English, aiming always to preserve the uncanny aesthetic distance and moral neutrality of the original at its full, thrilling, and horrifying depth. Read three pages, any three pages, and you’ll realize that, no, you are not yet done with Homer.” —Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography

”A strange, almost forgotten feeling overtook me as I first dipped into this new translation. I felt compelled to recite aloud! The poetry rocks and has a macho cast to it, like rap music. It’s overtly virile stuff, propelled from the time when music, language, information, and politics were not yet distinguished.” —Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget

About the Author

Stephen Mitchell is widely known for his ability to make old classics thrillingly new. His many books include the bestselling Tao Te Ching, the Iliad, Gilgamesh, The Gospel According to Jesus, The Book of Job, Bhagavad Gita, and The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. His website is StephenMitchellBooks.com.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1439163375
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atria Books; Reprint edition (October 11, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781439163375
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1439163375
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.7 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,086,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #770 in Ancient & Classical Poetry
- #861 in Epic Poetry (Books)
- #1,013 in Ancient & Classical Literary Criticism (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 126 ratings

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Homer

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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. Both works attributed to Homer - The Iliad and The Odyssey - are over ten thousand lines long in the original. Homer must have had an amazing memory but was helped by the formulaic poetry style of the time.

In The Iliad Homer sang of death and glory, of a few days in the struggle between the Greeks and the Trojans. Mortal men played out their fate under the gaze of the gods. The Odyssey is the original collection of tall traveller's tales. Odysseus, on his way home from the Trojan War, encounters all kinds of marvels from one-eyed giants to witches and beautiful temptresses. His adventures are many and memorable before he gets back to Ithaca and his faithful wife Penelope.

We can never be certain that both these stories belonged to Homer. In fact 'Homer' may not be a real name but a kind of nickname meaning perhaps 'the hostage' or 'the blind one'. Whatever the truth of their origin, the two stories, developed around three thousand years ago, may well still be read in three thousand years' time.

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4.6 out of 5

126 global ratings

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Reviewer from San Ramon

Readable translation, but...

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2011

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There are 2 ways to comment on Stephen Mitchell's new translation of Homer's Iliad. One, is to comment on the technical aspect of his translation; and, two, is to comment on the readability of his translation in ordinary English language (by the way, this is one of the main points that Mitchel is making: that his translation is more contemporary and captures the current way that we use the English language).

First, on the technical aspect of the translation. I will not say too much here since I am not a Homeric scholar and I am sure that there are many other experts out there who will debate this point. Nevertheless, it will be useful to give a background on how Mitchel came about translating this. His translation is based on Martin L West's edition of Homer's Iliad. It should be noted that West's edition is controversial because he made a distinction between "original" text as written by the author of Iliad ("Homer"), and subsequent additions to that original text. West has stipped away all text that are not "original" by his own standard and criteria. As a result, the entire Book X, for example, has been banished, and so have many lines, and phrases that are deemed "additonal". As I mentioned before, Micthel's translation also left out those "additional" text that are not "original". I can imagine that scholars can and undoubtedbly will, debate what is "original", and what is "addition" for a very long time. (By the way, Daniel Mandelshon in The New Yorker magazine Nov 7 2011, has a review of this book that explains just how silly the definition of "original" versus "addition" can be. Highly recommended to read.)

Second, now, on to the readability of his translation. Here, I was somewhat disappointed to discover that Mitchel's translation add nothing new to the readability of Homer's Iliad that has been done by other contemporary translators, notably Stanley Lombardo. In other words, if you are looking for a contemporary translation with readable and common English, Lombardo's work will do just fine. In fact Lombardo's translation adds something new with how he structured the similes, which in Iliad are everywhere. Of course if you are looking for poetic beauty, Fagles' translation is still the book to read.

Here is a comparison between Fagles, Lombardo and Mitchel:

- Fagles (Book 19, 254):
"You talk of food?
I have no taste for food - what I really crave
is slaughter and blood and the choking groan of men!"

- Lombardo (Book 19, 225):
"Nothing matters to me now
but killing, and blood, and men in agony."

- Mitchell (Book 19, 215):
"I cannot think about eating. All I can think of
is slaugther and bloodshed and the loud groans of the dying."

From a poetic perspective, Fagles is more dramatic ("crave", "choking"), but from readability perspective, Lombardo's is fine enough. Thus, I find Mitchel's translation sits in somewhere between Fagles and Lombardo: not as poetic as Fagles, but, not as innovative as Lombardo's either.

73 people found this helpful

Helpful

Orson Welles

Mitchell retains Homer's oral formulae while modernizing the poem

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2014

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Until I read Mitchell's excellent translation, I had never gotten as deep a sense of the cost of war: the exhaustion, the slaughtered bodies piling up, the fights over corpses, the grieving, the endless desire to avenge, defeat absorbing victories that barbaric, "butchery" to use Mitchell's word. Mitchell brings out the tension in the Iliad between the horrors of war and the desire for glory and honor that generate those horrors. The cover gives you a great sense of Mitchell's take on the poem: a soldier kneeling alone either because he is paying respect or because he is exhausted. By the way, Mitchell does include Book X. He just puts it in the back as an appendix with an illuminating and informative discussion of why scholars do not think it was part of Homer's poem. So you can read Book 10 if you wish.
English twentieth-century translations of Homer, translators tend to go in one of two directions: they heighten the archaic aspects of the Iliad, the formulae that look repetitive to a modern eye and ear. (Like whenever armor worn in combat is mentioned, it is always "bloodstained armor"); or translators abandon the oral roots of the poem and license themselves to get as poetic as they like, even adding lots of material ( The Iliad (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) goes the furthest in this regard of any I know. Mitchell has really achieved something with this translation: the formulae are noticeable, but not because they are redact. He has thoroughly integrated them into his very contemporary translation, that they call your attention them the same way other formal aspects of the poem call attention to themselves. Mitchell's introduction is the most thoughtful and well-written of any I've read (Fales, Lattimore or Lomabardo The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation ; The Iliad of Homer , Iliad ). The paperback is also handsomely produced. The page size is much larger than most others and the ink is quite dark. I first read an adaptation of the poem as a child. I'm now 60. I'm really happy I Mitchell published this translation while I'm still able to read it.

22 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

XO5

Is it supposed to be insightful or merely has historical relevance?

Reviewed in Australia on June 23, 2022

Verified Purchase

Nothing wrong with the author's translation, but the story was very boring and repetitive despite its reputation.
I couldn't see any insights personally

Steven Siffledeen

More than what I expected

Reviewed in Canada on September 24, 2013

Verified Purchase

I definitely was happy with this book. It's a beautiful hardcover book, and even came with it's own ribbon book mark. Definitely more than I expected.

2 people found this helpful

Iñaki Moraza

Excellent

Reviewed in Spain on September 6, 2022

Verified Purchase

Vibrant, engaging, best.

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