Iliad

Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly Modern Homer
Review: A lot of things that were required reading in college should not have been; that is not the case for Homer's Illiad. There is a good reason why it's called a classic. Sure, it's a little long and the catalogues get a bit tedious. But I was totally blown away by how totally modern this story remains. The battle scenes are as bloody as anything about modern warefare we see on the nighly news. (The book cover has a photograph taken of World War II soldiers landing at Normandy entitled "Into the Jaws of Death.) And while reading this, I opened up an issue of USA Today and see that Brad Pitt will be starring in a movie based on this epic.

The Iliad does have so much universal appeal. For example, the scene where Hector's son is frightened by his father's helmet and cries as Hector attempts to say goodbye before going into battle. Or when King Priam comes to plead with Achilles for the body of Hector and Achilles suggests that he eat in order to assuage his grief for his beloved fallen son. How many times have we all taken food to our bereaved friends and family. Sometimes it's all we know to do.

If the purists are upset about this translation, I am not. Parts of this work read like a modern novel. In addition to an occasional four letter word, we see phrases like "get the hell out," "put me out of commission," "tough customer," and "you're nothing but trash," to name a few. There are beautifully constructed phrases as well: in one of the many battle scenes "death enfolded them" and Priam describes himself as being on the "threshold of old age."

Sheila Murnaghan has written a long, interesting introduction to the work. There is also a catalogue of "Combat Deaths," and who killed whom if you are keeping up with that sort of thing, as well as a list of the speeches and an index of the major Greeks, Trojans and, of course, Zeus and his crowd.

A thoroughly enjoyable reread!

Rating:
Summary: The high-octane stylings of Stanley Lombardo
Review: After attempting to read Butcher & Lang's dry and archaic translation of the Iliad, I switched over to Lombardo and encountered a poem that was forceful, dynamic, and full of adrenaline. In his preface, Lombardo justified his use of modern-day colloquial English in order to bring out the urgency and energy that a poem of war deserves, and I believe that he has done so brilliantly. At times, I thought I was bearing witness to a professional wrestling match, because of the way the Greek and Trojan heroes would taunt each other during combat. The descriptions of combat can be quite graphic at times, but such is the nature of warfare and violence. In addition to his colloquial translation, Lombardo introduced a number of structural changes, such as getting rid of dactylic hexameter and changing the way similes are handled, in order to accomodate the peculiarities of the English language. Although a traditional Homerist might gawk at many of these innovations in style and structure, I think that they go a long way to increasing accessibility and arousing interest in the general readership.

Rating:
Summary: an Iliad to read for a first time or any time
Review: From a Homer reader who has read Pope and Chapman and a half dozen or so of the various 19th and 20th century translations I state unequivocally that Lombardo's translation of Homer's Iliad (and Odyssey for that matter) is in a category to itself. I state this not as a revelation of how a simple translation can open up this epic, but as a revelation of how specifically Lombardo's simple translation has opened up this great epic in the way a clear, coloquial version can potentially do. There are many virtues in this translation (one being that, despite the colloquialness and simplicity (or street level) of approach, it is really very sneaky poetic in ways that suprise, such as descriptions of beauty and strength and high emotion and understanding and nature that one comes across so often in Homer's epics); a cenral virtue of Lombardo though is he is able to describe and carry the actual story of the poem in a really actually 'visually' revelatory way that brings you in and allows you to see and follow the plot aspects of the narrative (when other reviewers mention 'screenplay' or well-crafted genre type novel it is very much on-the-mark). This comes across more strikingly in his Iliad translation (simply because the Odyssey is more novel-like to begin with), but also in the Odyssey as well. I would even go so far as to say that if you were to make a list of three great English translations of Homer, representing ascending levels of difficulty and poetry, I would choose: Level 1 - Lombardo; Level 2: Pope; Level 3 - Chapman (Chapman, the contemporary of Shakespeare who sought to reveal Homer's 'mysticke meaning'). One final note: Lombardo apparently spent many years reciting Homer for live audiences, and I suspect, speaking with just a little poetic license, that the Muse might have been attendant upon him in his efforts to translate as a reward for his dedication. And, I should add this: yes, there are some clankers in Lombardo's approach (four letter words in four or five places, for instance, that, not just because they are four letter words, will inevitably come across to many as bad notes by a soloist in a symphony orchestra); and yes his style is not the high approach that some would always expect Homer to demand, yet the translations really are poetic within their own level and style. Lombardo comes across as actually liking the poems too. He knows, for instance, the women in the Iliad and Odyssey are beautiful and he describes that beauty in many ways that are as poetically on-the-mark as any translator has done before him...

Rating:
Summary: Captures the esential Iliad
Review: Homer's great works are, above all, stories of action and adventure. By liberally using vernacular english in his translation, Stanley Lombardo delivers a wonderful translation that captures much of the essence of the original. Classicists may be disapointed at some of his use of slang in translation, but the texts livly nature are well worth the loss. Homer captured the imagination of young people for generations. With this translation, it can do so again.

Rating:
Summary: Stilted in its own way
Review: I came to this translation expecting--I might even say intending--to like it. However, having slogged with some difficulty through the whole thing, I'm not sure I can recommend it.

If it's true that Homer is chiefly of academic interest these days, then Lombardo's translation does what I think is known in academe as "strive for relevance," to make the hoary old text easier on the kids--heck, you can even see this striving in the book's cover photograph, which shows a view from a landing craft on D-Day.

Unfortunately, if Professor Lombardo can shorten and abbreviate the verses, he can't at the same time "fix" the inherent antiquatedness of epic form. The "omniscient narrator" had yet to be invented, so the characters, like actors onstage, speak in bombastic declarations, the effect of which is somewhat like that of a musical, in which every now and then the action is interrupted so the characters can break into song; we're expected to believe that the fighting pauses regularly while one of these ceremonial speeches is declaimed. Another anachronism is the quasi-historical listing of names and events, which makes parts of Homer read like Genesis--and which to modern English-speaking readers is, shall we say, the opposite the relevant. And of course there's the curious and primitive interweaving of plausible narrative with the actions of the gods, which nothing could modernize.

What the modern _reader_ really needs is not the lines made shorter and sweeter, but the book made so--in other words, an abridgement. Of course people don't like to read "parts" of books, so abridgements never get anywhere. Nevertheless, the _Iliad_ is far too long for anyone with a schedule.

So, somewhat to my own surprise, I ended up not liking this translation very much, modern expressions and shortened lines notwithstanding. The English of Richmond Lattimore may be longer-breathed and more formal, but it is more in keeping with the ancient and foreign character of the book's structure and of the culture and values of the Greeks.

I guess my own ideal version of a "reader's _Iliad_" would be a thoughtful abridgement of Lattimore.

Oh, and by the way, if you don't want to be told the entire story before you read the story, avoid the introduction, which tells you what happens, what parts are important, and what you're supposed to think about it all before you even begin. Really, these sorts of essays should come _after_ the text, not before it, unless the reader is assumed to come to the text itself with half a brain and his or her mind on dinner.

Rating:
Summary: Iliad - sans the whimsy and pompisity.
Review: I have a copy of this book in paperback. I'm going to give it away to a friend of mine who can't read Greek. Me - I want to buy a hardbound copy as soon as I can, so that it will last forever. This is the translation of the Iliad that I would want to pass on to the children I'll someday have.

The Iliad is an essential book to understanding some of the many facets of strugle and passion in human society. It is too bad that the book is often thought of as something strictly read by stuffy intelectuals and boring academics. That literature has become something removed from the everyman is lamentable. But to often it is seen as boring old books for boring bookish people. Reading the Homer is a red flag for this stereotype.

This distortion of Homer is due to two key problems: Whimsy and pompisity.

I say whimsy because, very often, a person goes into Classics, and eventualy becomes a translator of Attic Greek or Latin because of a certain nostalgia for the warm hazzy feeling of a golden age long past, because of a desire to plunge into the musty depths of the well of history. Thier writting often reflects this historical romanticism, by adopting archaic or stiffled manners of English speech. If you are the type of person who thrills to long dry sentences filled with verbs that end in -th, then you may well enjoy other more formal translations, but you should be aware that Homer doesn't necessarily represent that. Homer was modern, at least to his original audience. The works of Homer were not nostaligic and filled with purple prose.

To tell the truth, the Greek lanugage is anathema to that sort of writting. This, though creates the second problem, pompisity. The insitution of Classical Studies has been so deeply entrenched in Academia, that often translation of Greek classics is seen as a medium to convey a person's technical mastery of Greek, instead of presenting something readable.

In Greek, there are several hundered different verb froms, as well as declinsons, meaning that the nouns are modified to reflect different uses in much the same way we conjugate verbs, so a full sentance of English could be required to explain the meaning of a single Greek word. Thus, Greek sounds brisque and fresh, even in ancient texts, but translators who attempt to show their mastery of Greek tend to ramble on, translating so many intricate nuances of the words that we lose track of the narrative in the midst of all these tiny details.

Lattimore, for instance, has produced a supurbly technical tranlsation of the Iliad, and I would genuinely recomend it to any student of Greek, since it can provide a very litteral equivelent of the Greek in the English language, and then as a student of Greek, one can then enjoy the spirit and vitality that Lattimore utterly lacks by reading the Greek original. (Actualy, if one is willing to spend the time to do all this, it will be far more rewarding than merely reading even the best translation)

On the other hand, unless you are an ardent classicist, reading Homeric Greek is an arduous process, and if I am looking to just enjoy a book for it's monumental themes and vivid human landscape, then this book provides that without years of college study. This book sounds much more like the Iliad that one reads in Greek, in that the Greek text seems very straight forward and visceral.

The perfect example of this is that Lombardo consistently describes Agamemnon as a 'Warlord.' To me, this makes sense and does so without rambling on to create an artificial antiquity or a pompus academic sound.

If you are looking to just read the Iliad for fun, or because you've no doubt heard of it and want to see what all the fuss is about, this is the perfect book.

Rating:
Summary: O.K. version
Review: I have read the Lombardo translation of the Iliad and its very well done, except he is in a league of giants; I think for the lyical aspect of Homer Pope is the best, and for the symplicity of the Epic, Lattimore and Fagels do a great job. I think if somebody want to enjoy the Iliad, Lombardo is a terrific starting point, but the others should not be forgoten. (Esp Pope: he is my favorite, I am VERY partial).

Rating:
Summary: Readable and enjoyable - read this translation!
Review: I never had to read The Iliad for school, but I've always meant to read it. When I picked up this translation at random from my library, I was afraid The Iliad would prove a dry read that I would painfully work my way through, but I was determined to get this classic under my belt.

I was pleasantly surprised. Lombardo's translation is readable and smooth and enjoyable. It doesn't bog you down in archaic language - it flows in a more readable text, without falling into the same trap as Shakespeare for Dummies and dumbing it down so that an intelligent reader feels talked down to. It's readable without being stupid - a smart, easy-to-read translation that will appeal to anyone who wants to enjoy the experiance of reading The Iliad.

I can't recommend it enough.

Rating:
Summary: High School Kid Adores Homer
Review: I read assigned excerpts from The Iliad dutifully in high school and with my teacher's guidance was able to appreciate some of Homer's genius, but my 15-year-old daughter took Lombardo's Iliad to her room as if it were a fresh copy of Seventeen magazine. And then she told me it was "really good." What more of a recommendation could I need? I bought the book and am now reveling in the power of Homer's words via Lombardo's gifted translation.

Rating:
Summary: This is not the Iliad you remember from college
Review: I remember suffering through the dry Lattimore translation twenty years ago in college. This transation, with its vivid, colloquial language brings the Iliad to life.