Iliad

Rating:
Summary: A wonderfully poetic translation
Review: Stanley Lombardo has a unique ability to recreate the dynamic poetic style of Homer. Lombardo's translation is a properly balanced compromise between accuracy and readability. However, his translations are accurate in a way that most other translations are not as he presents the texts fresh and new to reader as if each reading is the first time the poem was performed orally. I would recommend Lombardo's translations to anyone experiencing Homer for the first time as well as anyone who wishes to reexperience the Homeric classics with fresh new energy.

Rating:
Summary: Lively and Vivid
Review: Stanley Lombardo has produced a lively and readable translation of Homer's work that's not afraid to use modern idiom and military jargon. I've read several translations (but not the original Greek unfortunately) and I'd recommend this to anybody interested in it whether it's his first experience of Homer or not. Setting the extended similes in italics and in their own stanzas adds to the vividness of the translation. I've liked Lombardo's Iliad enough to buy several of his other translations including the Odyssey. The hardback is full cloth and has a sewn binding; I only wish it came with a dust jacket.