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: 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: 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: My students love this translation, and you will, too
Review: I teach the Iliad in my Humanities course to honors twelfth graders. The first year I taught it, I used the Lattimore translation, and the Iliad was rated by the students as the worst book of the course. The following year I used Lombardo, and the Iliad suddenly became the favorite book; it has remained so in subsequent years. Why? Lombardo's Iliad cracks and sizzles with energy, humor, and humanity; it is accessible but does not sacrifice depth or dignity. It is in a modern, at times sassy idiom that nevertheless remains faithful to the spirit of Homer(as an ancient-Greek-reading colleague assures me). It begs to be read out loud; it is a teacher's dream. Fagles and Fitzgerald pale in comparison. This is definitely the translation to buy if you are reading the Iliad for the first time.

Additional useful features for both teachers and students are the following: the epic similes are italicized and set off from the main body of the poem for easy identification; at the back of the book there is a list of who kills whom and where (book and line) and an index of major speeches; a map of Asia Minor showing Troy and environs; and a glossary of names of both gods and humans, complete with pronunciation and a short identification.

Rating:
Summary: A must-have translation
Review: I think I must have read every major translation of the Iliad by now. They all have something to recommend them. There are some to which I will never return. I think I would rate Robert Fagles translation as the best. All of which will afford some context when I say that Lombardo is a must read. Enough glowing things have been said here by other reviewers, so I will refrain from commenting over much on the translation per se.

What I will say is this. I SAW Book I of Lombardo's translation enacted on the stage in New York about a year and a half ago. If EVER one needed a reminder that the first auditors of this tale were listeners and not readers and that the Iliad was composed first and foremost FOR listeners, actually seeing Book I brought to life was it. It was magnificent. I had read Lombardo in preparation for the play. I LOVED it -- the immediacy of it, the currency, the urgency, the sheer page turning pace into which he rendered the Iliad. But actually seeing it? It is something I shall never forget. The audience was actually laughing outloud at certain points -- and we forget, don't we, that there is much humour in the Iliad? That laughter brought a sense of community. And it was actually possible, closing your eyes, to imagine yourself transported back in time, listening to a retelling of the Iliad -- so very, very long ago.

Traditionalists will no doubt have MAJOR problems with Lombardo. I consider myself to be reasonably traditional, but I fairly EMBRACED this translation. But I can imagine many will, like my father, run with horror from lines like:

"Now get this straight. I swear a formal oath:
.......
When every last Greek desperately misses Achilles,
Your remorse won't do any good then,
When Hector the man-killer swats you down like flies.
And you will eat your heart out
Because you failed to honour the best Greek of all."

Or:

"I've never seen men like those, and never will,
........
The strongest men who ever lived on earth, the strongest,
And they fought with the strongest, with wild things
From the mountains, and beat the daylihts out of them.
I was their companion......"

But I LOVED it -- I found my heart pounding and my blood racing at points. Buy this book and settle down in your favorite chair for a great read -- oh, and buckle your seat-belt.

Rating:
Summary: An essential translation
Review: If this is your first time reading the Iliad, you probably want to go with a more traditional translation- there is no shortage of excellent ones out there. However, if you've read a translation before and either 1) loved it and want more or 2) found it dry, something you were forced to read in high school, this translation is essential. This Iliad has a more contemporary slant, a more staccato diction, and a more easily grapsed layout. Purists shouldn't worry too much- the essence of Homer's mastpiece remains intact, going so far as to helpfully break off his extended similies into italicized passages in between the narrative. In my opinion, this does much to add to the vitality of the work, and while the characters occasionally dip into questionable vocabulary (the phrasings and rare profanity), it injects some energy into the proceedings. Not that they need any- this is The Book for anyone interested in building a knowledge of conflict in human history, and has no shortage of graphic carnage in its content.

The Iliad has experienced a resurgence of late as more and more people realize the importance of seeking answers to present questions in the lessons of the past. I highly recommend this translation- an excellent work.

Rating:
Summary: Amazingly readable
Review: Lombardo's translation is, without any doubt, the most readable and engrossing English-language version of the Iliad. The language is clear and contemporary, the metaphors and similes are accessible, and the imagery is striking. This translation will be enjoyed by adolescents and the elderly alike.

One detractor for people familiar with Homer, is that Lombardo has done away with some of the familiar renderings of the epithets. Gone, for example, are "swift-footed Achilles" and "rosey-fingered Dawn." Regardless, this is THE English-language Iliad.