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The Iliad of Homer

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Title: The Iliad of Homer
by Homer, Richmond Lattimore
ISBN: 0-226-46940-9
Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd)
Pub. Date: September, 1987
Format: Paperback
Volumes: 1
List Price(USD): $13.00
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Average Customer Rating: 4.44 (41 reviews)

Customer Reviews

Rating: 5
Summary: The Iliad of Homer, Translated by Alexander Pope
Comment: The two classic verse (English) translations of Homer's Iliad & Odyssey are by George Chapman (1611) and Alexander Pope (1725). A classic prose translation of both works is the one by Lang, Leaf, and Myers (Iliad), and Butcher, Lang (Odyssey). A good, literal prose translation from the 1890's of the Odyssey is the George Herbert Palmer. Good literal, modern prose translations of both works are the ones by A. T. Murray. The better prose and verse translations of the latter half of the 20th century (E. V. Rieu, Fagles, Lattimore, Fitzgerald, Lombardo, Mandelbaum, etc.) are all, though they obviously have different approaches, pretty much at the same level of inspiration. To get most of Homer in English you have to first learn the poems from ANY translation that speaks to you (even starting with a paraphrased prose version for 'children' is a good idea), then you have to read the Chapman and Pope along with a good, literal prose version. This Penquin Classics edition of Pope's translation of the Iliad includes all of Pope's notes for each book as-well-as his Preface, Essays on the nature of Homer's battle scenes and on the Shield of Achilles, and the three remarkable indexes (Index of Persons and Things, Poetical Index, and Index of Arts and Sciences). The notes contain, along with Pope's original notes, numerous extracts from ancient and modern commentators of the poem including the allegorizing of the various scenes and events and so on. Pope's verse itself makes Homer a startling new experience for anyone only familiar with 20th century translations. Because the verse is in heroic, rhymed couplets each detail of the poem stands more clearly on its own. Details that get blended in and painted over in modern translations stand out in Pope's verse. The verticalness of the poem (hierarchy of levels of being from beneath human to human to semi-divine to divine...) is made more visible. Architecture and natural description is more vivid. Pope also brings out the higher psychological play between the characters and gods and goddesses. This edition is definitely worth its price.

Rating: 5
Summary: Behold, the Bard!
Comment: Everything you have heard about the importance of Homer to all of subsequent western thought.....IT'S ALL TRUE! Homer is the very foundation upon which everything else in western philosophy and literature rests. While it is impossible to capture the rhythm of Dactyllic Hexameter in English, Lattimore's translation is nothing short of profound. Let me make a suggestion to anyone who is interested in reading Homer, but is not well versed in Greek mythology. Before beginning the ILIAD, consult a good reference guide that will give you all of the "background" information on this work (such as the judgment of Paris, the abduction (?) of Helen, etc). The ILIAD begins in medias res, (in the middle of things) and provides no background info whatsoever. Journey back to 1,200 BC to the ninth year of the Trojan War...join the millions of readers throughout history who have lent their imaginations to the ancient bard Homer & have come to understand the wrath of Achilles.... an anger that is by one account rather childish, but on another so very human. Read Homer, if at all possible. If it is not possible for you to read Homer, then by all means MAKE IT POSSIBLE! This book is that important.

Rating: 3
Summary: A noble effort...
Comment: For Homer to take his place among our classics it must be the case that a rendering could exercise the same spell over the collective ear as English-language poets. You could not memorize Fagles, or Lattimore - or Hobbes, a few phrases apart - while Pope, even at his least Homeric, is memorable.

Lattimore:

The day that orphans a youngster cuts him off from friends.
And he hangs his head low, humiliated in every way. . .
his cheeks streaked with tears, and pressed by hunger
the boy goes up to his father's old companions,
tugging at one man's cloak, another's tunic,
and some will pity him, true,
and one will give him a little cup to drink,
enough to wet his lips, not quench his thirst.
But then some bully with both his parents living,
beats him from the banquet, fists and abuses flying,
'You, get out - you've got no father feasting with us here!'
And the boy, sobbing, trails home to his widowed mother. . .
Astyanax!

Pope:

The Day, that to the Shades the Father sends,
Robs the sad Orphan of his Father's Friends:
He, wretched Outcast of Mankind! appears
For ever sad, for ever bath'd in Tears;
Amongst the Happy, unregarded he,
Hangs on the Robe, or trembles at the Knee,
While those his Father's former bounty fed,
Nor reach the Goblet, nor divide the Bread:
The Kindest but his present Wants allay,
To leave him wretched the succeeding Day.
Frugal Compassion! Heedless they who boast
Both Parents still, nor feel what he has lost,
Shall cry, 'Begone! Thy Father feasts not here':
The Wretch obeys, retiring with a Tear.
Thus wretched, thus retiring all in Tears,
To my sad soul Astyanax appears!

You decide.

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