by Homer
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Product Description
"The finest translation of Homer ever made into the English language."—William Arrowsmith
"Certainly the best modern verse translation."—Gilbert Highet
"This magnificent translation of Homer's epic poem . . . will appeal to admirers of Homer and the classics, and the multitude who always wanted to read the great Iliad but never got around to doing so."—The American Book Collector
"Perhaps closer to Homer in every way than any other version made in English."—Peter Green, The New Republic
"The feat is decisive that it is reasonable to foresee a century or so in which nobody will try again to put the Iliad in English verse."—Robert Fitzgerald
"Each new generation is bound to produce new translations. [Lattimore] has done better with nobility, as well as with accuracy, than any other modern verse translator. In our age we do not often find a fine scholar who is also a genuine poet and who takes the greatest pains over the work of translation."—Hugh Lloyd-Jones, New York Review of Books
"Over the long haul Lattimore's translation is more powerful because its effects are more subtle."—Booklist
"Richmond Lattimore is a fine translator of poetry because he has a poetic voice of his own, authentic and unmistakable and yet capable of remarkable range of modulation. His translations make the English reader aware of the poetry."—Moses Hadas, The New York Times
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 greek myth, 2008-11-02
Nothing in greek myth stands alone - you'll need a basic background to get all the side stories. The Odessey is more entertaining on the whole but chronologically this precedes. Unbiased translation - always good.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Apt reading for America today, 2008-10-19
been for the Greeks of 3000 years ago. Lattimore has given us with a brilliant translation that makes this masterpiece accessible in all its beauty to modern-day English speakers. The introduction provides the necessary understanding of the background and translation scheme, adding to the appreciation of the poem, but concise and short enough to permit the reader to delve into the beauty of the Iliad without much further ado. The Iliad of course is the most famous classic Greek poem. In reading this translation, one vividly moves into the world of the gods and heroes. Though seemingly long, the Iliad is breathtaking in its action and plot sequences. It is easy to get lost imagining the conflicts between Achilleus, Agamemnon, and Hector, or reflecting on the fascinating intrigues of Athena and Zeus. There are many lessons in these tales for everyone today, for we humans still behave within the same parameters of pride, glory, anger, vengeance, and love. After reading it, I was left reflecting about th meaning of victory, and how Achilleus was unsatisfied after obtaining his revenge. Read it, and you will instantly recognized why this epic poem has been deemed a masterpiece. Perhaps one of the first anti-war works of literature, the Iliad stands as relevant for our world today as it has
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Richmond Lattimore...Genius!!!!!, 2008-10-17
Richmond Lattimore was an absolute genius. I recommend this book to very advanced classics students, but especially to those who have taken many years of Latin and Greek courses. The translation is most certainly not intended for anyone prosaic. It is more literally and accurately translated than any other translation in existence. For the lover of poetry, this translation is a must! Bravo Lattimore!!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Invaluable Documents but...an uneasy read., 2008-09-08
I recognize and agree that Lattimore's translations of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" are the MOST TRUE to Homer and Ancient Greek we have ever seen.
Two minor examples: he uses long verse lines (like Homer), maintains Homer's sentence structure and he keeps and repeats all the Epitaphs exactly as they appear in Homer.
Lattimore's choice of words and sentence organization can sometimes seem jumbled and complicated and his manner/style somewhat archaic, it is because Lattimore is showing how Homer "sounds" in English as if you were translating it directly and perfectly from the Greek. That is Lattimore's aim, to render Homer as EXACTLY as possible. For this I am grateful...he has helped many to develop a more scholarly aptitude.
This aside,
I give it 3 stars because I find that his translation is not condusive to reading. Lattimore's 1950's American English is out of date and the story moves excessively slow. I often find Lattimore's Homer stodgy, hard, complicated, and often boring!
My favorites are still Stanley Lombardo's (Prosaic Verse) and E.V. Rieu's (Novel-like Prose) versions. Both full of fire-like Excitement, shimmering Beauty and monumental Drama.
I always recommend having 2 or 3 different versions of Homer on shelf, Lattimore is always on mine...not for reading enjoyment though but only for comparing.
Thanks
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Western literature starts here, 2008-09-05
Having been a very lazy student in high school, I'm sure I was assigned to read the Iliad or Odyssey, but never did. A recent trip to Crete, and to the ruins of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization inspired me to read Homer. Considering the comments of reviewers who read the Iliad under duress as students, I'm glad that I read it on my own account.
Why read the Iliad? For one thing, it's where Western literature begins. The Minoans had writing, but their language is undeciphered. The Mycenaean Greeks adapted the Minoan writing system, and their language has been identified as an early form of Greek, but if they ever wrote any extended works, none have been discovered. That means that Homer and Hesiod, who are generally thought to have lived in the 8th Century B.C., are the earliest surviving literature in Europe. Homer is assumed to predate Hesiod. The themes of the Iliad - fate and free will, for instance - have been dealt with by writers through the ages, and continue now.
Homer's works represent the transition point where the legends and traditions transmitted orally since time inmemorial are first recorded in writing. The settings of the Iliad and the Odyssey are in Bronze Age Mycenaean Greece, and many of the traditional legends which serve as a basis for the stories undoubtedly date back far into prehistory. The style and contents of the Iliad have many elements which undoubtedly come directly from the oral traditions, most notably the Iliad is written in verse. These, as Lattimore explains in his introduction, are tools which the narrator uses (a) to memorize the tale, and (b) to help to help the listener follow along. A lot of elements are repeated, especially the epithets (my favorite is "Thersites of the endless speech") and descriptions of repeated events like religious ceremonies or the death of a warrior ("his armor clattered about him"). Reading it, it can seem a bit repetitive at times, but keep in mind that this is an epic composed long before it was transcribed to written language.
This is by no means easy reading, and it is quite long (485 pages). Things are usually developed very slowly. The plot of the story is actually fairly simple. Lattimore starts the book with a 50 page introduction, which is very helpful in explaining how the Iliad works. In the beginning of the introduction he gives a summary of the story which takes less than one page, but you would be missing the entire point by reading the "cliff notes". To give you an example, there is a description of Achileus' shield which takes up 4 pages, and which is an absolute highlight of the book. Patroclos's funeral is also detailed at length, giving a fascinating look at the culture in pre-Classical Greece (you can't be sure how much is from the Mycenaean Bronze Age, and how much is from the Iron Age Dark Ages, when Homer lived).
A lot of time is given to the interaction of the various gods and immortal beings with mere mortals. This is one of the most interesting aspects of the book. These gods are hardly impartial, loving, or "above things". They all have competing stakes in the outcomes of the war, and scheme and deceive humans and one another to affect the outcomes for their favorite mortals.
Not having read any other translation of the Iliad, I really can't comment on the relative merrits of Lattimore's translation compared to others. Lattimore's goal is to be as true to the original Greek sentence structure and the original meter of the verse. Since English and Ancient Greek have very different grammatical structures, this inevitably results in some convoluted sentences at times. Unlike some other translations, this one remains pretty faithful to the original Greek names, rather than the Roman ones (Zeus and Ares vs. Jupiter and Mars, etc.). This attempt to be faithful to the original is why I ultimately chose to read this translation. I really wanted to get into the spirit of the times, as much as possible.
BTW on the web you can listed to a recitation of the "Iliad" in ancient Greek by Prof. Stanley Lombardo, who also did a translation. I can't understand anything, but it sounds great, and you can really appreciate the musicality of the poem.
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