The Iliad of Homer

by Homer

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Series (with order)

Canonical Title

Ilias

Original publication date

00008th - 7th c. BCE

1950 (English: Rieu)

1951 (English: Lattimore)

1974 (English: Fitzgerald)

1990 (English: Fagles)

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Awards and honors

Benjamin Franklin Award (Audiobook - Adult Nonfiction, 2007) Stanley Lombardo translation

Epigraph

Dedication

To the memory of my father and my mother
and for Lynne, Katya and Nina ...
(Fagles translation, 1996)

First words

Anger be now your song, immortal one,
Achilles' anger, doomed and ruinous,
that caused the Achaens loss on bitter loss
and crowded brave souls into the undergloom,
leaving so many dead men - carrion
for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.
(Fitzgerald translation, 1974)

Rage - Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving towards its end.
(Fagles translation, 1996)

Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilleus
and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the
Achaians,
hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls
of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting
of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished
since that time when first there stood in division of conflict
Atreus' son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus.
(Lattimore, 1951)

Rage:

Sing, Goddess, Achilles' rage,
Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks
Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls
Of heroes into Hades' dark,
And left their bodies to rot as feasts
For dogs and birds, as Zeus' will was done
(Lombardo trnaslation, 1997)

Quotations

Last words

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Disambiguation notice

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LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Book descriptions

Amazon.com (ISBN 0140275363, Paperback)

This groundbreaking English version by Robert Fagles is the most important recent translation of Homer's great epic poem. The verse translation has been hailed by scholars as the new standard, providing an Iliad that delights modern sensibility and aesthetic without sacrificing the grandeur and particular genius of Homer's own style and language. The Iliad is one of the two great epics of Homer, and is typically described as one of the greatest war stories of all time, but to say the Iliad is a war story does not begin to describe the emotional sweep of its action and characters: Achilles, Helen, Hector, and other heroes of Greek myth and history in the tenth and final year of the Greek siege of Troy.

(retrieved from Amazon Mon, 25 Aug 2008 01:48:06 -0400)

(see all 5 descriptions)