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Download this text: The Iliad
Customer Review: The Iliad
Ah, the original look at the glories and heartache of the Trojan War! While many authors like to take bits and pieces of the story (which is fine) it's necessary to look at the entire epic to appreciate all that happened, from its origins to its heroes and the gods that experienced just as much triumph and pain, if not more. It's full of all the good things of a good story: action, betrayal, friendship, romance, tragedy. Always a great read.
Amazon.com Review
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.
Customer Review: DON'T buy into the Fagles "hype"!
Although I respect Fagles as a modern translator, I cannot recommend his translations of Homer...I would probably only recommend his translations of Sophocles's 3 Theban Plays.
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey don't sound like Epics anymore under Fagles...they are turned into mild nice sounding children stories! He tones down Homer to the point that I feel that Fagels wants his personality to shine NOT Homer's! I am gravely disappointed by this.
I also find that he not only forces beauty into the text but adds too much of his personal warmth that gets in the way of the texts and creates a vision of Homer's epics that is truly unsound to the original.
Not only that but the font and design of the print is an eye sore, I don't like the choice the publishers and Fagles gave to the works. It doesn't make for easy reading...
Stanley Lombardo's translations are unparalleled in their print layout, design and font...not to say vivid and powerful evocative translation.
I continue to find Richmond Lattimore's facinating translations the most accurate to how the Ancient Greek language sounds to English ears. I would buy Lattimore over Fagles (and Fitzgerald).
And I still think Rieu's famous Prose version of the Iliad from 1950 is hard to beat for it's modernity and readibility.
...Find out for yourself by comparing a few versions but don't be duped into this mysterious "Fagles hype"!
Product Description
This timeless poem-more than 2,700 year old-still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amid devastation and destruction as it moves inexorably to its wrenching, tragic conclusion. Readers of this epic poem will be gripped by the finely tuned translation and enlightening introduction.
Translated by Robert Fagles
Introduction and Notes by Bernard
Customer Review: nice
This was amazing that i got this book on time. The book is new like untouched even though it was said used book. Good job!! I thank you.
Customer Review: A new perspective, a classic for the general reader
Great introduction by Bernard Knox. Very few introductions add anything important to what comes afterward, but this one is even delicious to read, the great subject matters of the Iliad are here explained in terms that reach any person who can read.
I hadn't read the Iliad since a lot younger, and I was happily surprised to see so many different aspects that I hadn't noticed before. The war-film impressions of a kid were gone, and now only the sadness of death, the rage of Achilles, no mercy to the enemies... Hector stood as my hero this time, clearly defined as the last man to stand up for true human, civilized values. The embodiment of civilization, the last bastion of a soon to die culture of life.
It really sounded to me as a warning to cultivated societies of today that peace, freedom, happiness, wealth, art, are not free. And if this is not realized the shorter lived they will be. Not necessarily to be interpreted as a call to arms, but rather as food for thought, in the sense that trying to bribe the enemy is not the solution in the long run. Every time a Trojan got caught his family, or himself, would try ransoming him at the same time revealing the wealth, treasures they had collected, and arousing the greed and resentment of the "bad guys". "Remember, my child, that it was my sweat and labor that put you through college", we could use that expression to describe it. But it's like calling on deaf ears, since no pampered kid will feel obliged to such parental cares, on the contrary, rebellion is the outcome. The child becomes arrogant, even perverted, reluctant to admit his debt to his illiterate parents. No more digressing.
The translation is wonderful, very readable. A book never to become old. Also readable the essay on The Iliad by Simone Weil focusing on 'might'. Who are today yesterday's Argives and Troyans?
Customer Review: Readable, quasi-poetic, inaccurate
I just finished an extension course on The Iliad, and had the luxury of picking whatever translation I desired. I tried many, including Fagles, and a bit of the Greek original, and came to this conclusion:
Don't be misled by poetic or quasi-poetic translations. These can never do justice to a language incompatible with English, and miss the concision and power of Homer. If you want poetry, read Christopher Logue's reimagining of the epic in his several books.
Instead, get the best literal translation. For me right now, that's Hammond. Fagles tries to combine both worlds, and is unsatisfactory in either. I must admit, the packaging is handsome, but Fagles takes too many liberties with the text. For instance, when the text is repeated in Greek, it should be repeated in English, but Fagles doesn't do this.
At least Fagles is readable, unlike Lattimore, whose English does not trip happily on the tongue much of the time.
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Epic poetry, Greek--Translations into English
Achilles (Greek mythology)--Poetry
Trojan War--Poetry
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