- Hardcover: 608 pages
- Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (Nov 15 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0226470482
- ISBN-13: 978-0226470481
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.6 x 4.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 839 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#160,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #49 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Mythology > Greek & Roman
- #65 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Epic
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"Both lucid and learned, Lattimore writes with a certain grace, capturing the combination of nobility and speed which over 100 years ago Matthew Arnold famously heard in Homer’s work. . . . Read Richmond Lattimore's translation for the epic scale and narrative of Homer's poem."
(Economist )
"Martin's introduction surpasses all rivals. . . . Lattimore's Iliad is best for those who want to feel the epic from the loins up, its rush, its reprieves, and its overwhelming rage." (Chronicle of Higher Education )
(Economist )
"Martin's introduction surpasses all rivals. . . . Lattimore's Iliad is best for those who want to feel the epic from the loins up, its rush, its reprieves, and its overwhelming rage." (Chronicle of Higher Education )
Book Description
"Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus / and its devastation." For sixty years, that's how Homer has begun the Iliad in English, in Richmond Lattimore's faithful translation—the gold standard for generations of students and general readers.
This long-awaited new edition of Lattimore's Iliad is designed to bring the book into the twenty-first century—while leaving the poem as firmly rooted in ancient Greece as ever. Lattimore's elegant, fluent verses—with their memorably phrased heroic epithets and remarkable fidelity to the Greek—remain unchanged, but classicist Richard Martin has added a wealth of supplementary materials designed to aid new generations of readers. A new introduction sets the poem in the wider context of Greek life, warfare, society, and poetry, while line-by-line notes at the back of the volume offer explanations of unfamiliar terms, information about the Greek gods and heroes, and literary appreciation. A glossary and maps round out the book.
The result is a volume that actively invites readers into Homer's poem, helping them to understand fully the worlds in which he and his heroes lived—and thus enabling them to marvel, as so many have for centuries, at Hektor and Ajax, Paris and Helen, and the devastating rage of Achilleus.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A noble effort...,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Iliad of Homer (Paperback)
For Homer to take his place among our classics it must be the case that a rendering could exercise the same spell over the collective ear as English-language poets. You could not memorize Fagles, or Lattimore - or Hobbes, a few phrases apart - while Pope, even at his least Homeric, is memorable.Lattimore: The day that orphans a youngster cuts him off from friends. Pope: The Day, that to the Shades the Father sends, You decide.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Accurate, inspired translation,
By Sierra Wilson (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Iliad of Homer (Paperback)
Most are already familiar with the wartorn story of Homer's Iliad, so my only commentary is on this particular translation: it is, by merits of its flow and its close approximation of the original's hexameter, the best ever made into the English language. Lattimore does not attempt to make this 3,000 year-old epic into a flowery sonnet, a Shakespearian drama, or a willfully noble tale--instead, he goes to great lengths to preserve the feeling and the connotation of Homer's story, rendering it in highly readable, fast-paced verse that allows the reader to grasp the melodic and repetitive nature of the Greek. He consistently preserves every flavorful epithet, and thus convey the Iliad's power as closely as one can in translation. I would go so far as to say that this translation outstrips that of couplet extraordinaire Alexander Pope, for the latter's is not Homer, but rather a distant interpretation; unlike Lattimore's, it tries to make the Iliad into what it is not. For a clear picture of the original story of the Trojan War, by all means read the Lattimore version.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lattimore's Triumph,
By
This review is from: The Iliad of Homer (Paperback)
Few translators have had the success that Richmond Lattimore has when it comes to THE ILIAD. I would be hard pressed to find a better translation since others are either too literal to be poetic or too liberal to be faithful to Homer's story. Alexander Pope's is, of course, one of the greatest, but you have to go back 250 years to find one as enduring as Lattimore's.
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