Rating: 
Summary: A great treatment of a very old work
Review: This was the popular entertainment of the day 2500 years ago. People gathered `round to hear the bards sing of gods and heroes, and perhaps forget the daily grind for a while. In some ways, popular entertainment has not changed much. There are still over inflated personalities. They scheme against each other. They trade insults. They sleep with each other. They speak sometimes in truly awful dialogue, and are frequent creatures of incredulous plot lines.
From that standpoint, why should anyone study the classics seriously, or take them over a modern soap opera? Because, quite simply, anyone owing allegiance to Western Civilization has to see this as the dawn of their heritage - whether they fully appreciate it or not. These are the tales of the personalities that have colored our literature and language for a vast span of generations. Whether or not you care one whit for the finer nuances of classical civilization, you should still be able to appreciate The Iliad as a rousing good venture story. Being epic poetry, it does drag at times - but such parts are easily skimmed. All in all, what we have here is the central moment that unites of all the incredible expanse of Greek mythology. If you can't find something in all of that to take away and treasure, then I pity you.
The important thing for the common person to understand is that Greek mythology is not synonymous with Greek religion. Homer has turned Hera into a shrew, despite the goddess being a stately and well-respected deity in religious cult. Again, this is popular entertainment, and thus sensational. The tabloid impulse was as strong in Bronze Age Greece as it is now, and not even Olympian Gods can escape having their reputations dragged through the mud.
Fagles' translation is the best to which I've ever been privy. I don't speak one word of Homeric Greek, mind you. I only know what is enjoyable to read and what isn't. Fagles follows the flow of epic poetry without sounding too formal or boorish, something I felt Lattimore failed to achieve in the now "standard" translation I read at college. I'm told other translations like Lattimore follow the original more closely. I'm not terribly interested in the fact, and I suspect anyone outside a graduate Classics class will not care either. The measure of success is what is most easily digestible to an audience without completely sacrificing the original form or feeling. On that account, Fagles succeeds marvelously. The paragraphs are also spaced nicely, which makes reading easy on a pair of bad eyes. I even like the spiffy cover.
You can't go wrong with this translation. As a note to educators, I can't imagine subjecting high school or college students to any other version.
Rating:
Summary: A Most Well Prepared Translation of Homers Epic.
Review: For nearly three thousand years the poems of Homer have thrilled listeners of every culture and epoch. Allusions to The Iliad and The Odyssey are so pervasive in our western culture that they are almost required reading for anyone who wishes to study western literature.
Briefly, The Iliad is the story of the ten year long Trojan War, which climaxes with the destruction of the city of Troy by the Greeks through the deception of the Trojan Horse. Filled with tales of the heroes and gods of ancient Greece, Homer's poems are noted for the masterful use of wonderfully illustrative similes and metaphors, which become all the more wonderful with the understanding that Homer is believed to have been blind!
Translations of Homer which try to adhere to the original poetic structure and be as literal as possible are immensely difficult to read by all but the most focused scholars. Other translations have completley deviated from any resemblance of poetry in an effort to be more accessible to the average reader. Here Mr. Fagles has achieved a translation which is not only easy to read and understand, but which retains the poetic lyricism of the original.
Homer's works should be on the bookshelf of anyone who is interested in the classics, and with this translation you don't have to be a University Professor to appreciate them.
Rating: 
Summary: Something in excess.....
Review: Admittedly, the Fagles translation of The Iliad is not the version I am reviewing. Mine was a prose translation, by Samuel Butler, of 'The Way of All Flesh' fame.....and the words inscribed in the Temple of Apollo, 'Nothing in Excess' came to mind as I read, as there is something in excess, and not a good something...Having read the Odyssey in prose form, translated by E.V. Rieu, I had high hopes for what is described as the 'greatest war story ever told'.... With a more than impressive cast of characters to work with; Achilles, Paris, Hector, Helen of Troy, etc, etc, etc,....this story (and perhaps it is the translation) is really lacking when compared to The Odyssey in story content. Much of the book is used to name soldier after soldier who dies, along with his patronimic lineage...and how he was killed; be it sword, spear, rock, etc. The story that inspires this book, the love of Paris and his affair with Helen, the 'face that launched a thousand ships' is a story ripe with potential...for both a good war story, a good love story, and a fascinating look at Ancient Greek war strategy, and the taking and sacking of a powerful city like Troy. In this incarnation, it doesn't live up to that potential, which was greatly disappointing. The story read, to me, as a Classical equivalent to the United States' Vietnam War Memorial, listing name after name of slain soldiers and M.I.A.'s....so much so that the 'main characters' of the story are grievously overlooked, and it is near impossible to keep track of which side is winning, with name after name hurled at you. The saving grace, for me, of this book is really the last several chapters...where the grief of Achilles for his slain lover, Patroclus, is chronicled. While never blatant in its descriptiveness, the love, admiration, and longing that Achilles held for Patroclus is MORE than evident here, even if Brad Pitt couldn't muster the bravery to play it on screen in his ho-hum turn as Achilles. Also entertaining is the impish interference of the Gods from time to time to favor one side or another...which was also 'scrubbed' from the film version, as it, according to Pitt, would not 'play well' with an audience. I guess after reading the Odyssey, I anticipated a superior story here, and was disappointed with what I found. Though the subject matter is fascinating...and the recent Hollywood bastardization is appallingly NON-authentic, having read the story, I walked away from this book feeling let down.
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