Homer's Iliad...Review please?

[n0fear88]

hi I'm considering buying this book before Troy hits the screens in May and was wondering if I could get a review of it please?

thanks alot

G x :)

[Nick Danger]

I started reading it this winter, but my work schedule got hectic and I had to return it to the library uncompleted. I plan to buy it and read it when I get the time.

The translator matters a lot. This was the Robert Fagles translation, which I found easy reading. Some translators are more interested in the poetry than the sense.

The book is great stuff. It's the original he-man war story. You've got courageous Hector meeting with his wife and baby just before a battle. You've got Ajax single-handly charging the enemy and putting their lines to rout. You've got that sneaky bastard Odysseus looking for an angle. You've got Achilles going into a towering rage and pulling his army from the coalition forces, so that they come crawling back to him asking for his help. You've got the gods themselves taking a hand in battle. You've got the Achean officers spending a sleepless night in the trenches, after being forced almost back to the beach during the previous day's battle.

Really, there's a reason that it's been popular for 2800 years.

[Nick Danger]

Oh, yes, there are some older public domain translations available online. Try Project Gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.net/index.shtml

[n0fear88]

thanks alot :)

[n0fear88]

I've seen 2 diff copies of Homer's Iliad...an Oxford Classics and a Penguin Classics:

Penguin Classics (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140447946/ref=cm_ups_view_wishlist/ref=cm_mp_wli_/026-5854106-4330033?coliid=I3L53PA5MWWR2)

Oxford Classics (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0192834053/ref=cm_ups_view_wishlist/ref=cm_mp_wli_/026-5854106-4330033?coliid=IG6PN9ADYILBT)

There's a difference in price - Penguin is slightly more expensive but that doesnt bother me...what i would like to know is which of them is the better read?!

thanks for any help!

G x :)

[Mutley Hyde]

My dad has taught the Odyssey and the Illiad for over 20 years, and he swears by the Robert Fitzgerald translations (your Oxford version is Fitzgerald's). I've myself never read any version of either one. Click the pic and check out the Amazon reviews (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385059418/dvdtalk/dvdtalk/qid=1078096943) for a previous version.

Looks like a there's brand new edition here though with a new forward, published 2/15/04. No reviews on it yet but it's the same translation, so the previous reviews pertain to this one. Click the pic for the current publication.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0374529051.01._PE20_PI_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0374529051)

[Nuff]

Does anyone know of a link to a (legally) free downloadable version of Fitzgerald's translation?

[MrBob]

I read the penguin version about 7yrs ago. I really liked the book, but for some reason I literally couldn't read more than 10 pages before falling asleep for some reason.

[Beaver]

Lattimore's translation is supposed to be good as well.