Iliad which translation is best

So the sixth line is packed behind the fifth, imitating its sound cluster precisely the way in which the Trojan ranks, packed together in battle formation, are massed one behind the other.

They went on, as out of the racking winds the stormblast that underneath the thunderstroke of Zeus-Father drives downward and with gigantic clamour hits the sea, and the numerous boiling waves along the length of the roaring water bend and whiten to foam in ranks, one upon another; so the Trojans closing in ranks, some leading and others after them, in the glare of bronze armor followed their leaders.

Fagles uses a loose five-beat line. It can be a bit too loose—it sometimes feels like stacked prose—but has an admirable clarity:. So on the Trojans came, waves in the vanguard, waves from the rear, closing. Any help appreciated, thanks! Partly, it depends what you want to read - prose or poetry.

The latest poetic translation, which was well received, is available on the web - The Iliad. I thought it was very good. The dedication to his son gives a good feel of the style - Generations of men are like the leaves. In winter, winds blow them down to earth, but then, when spring season comes again, the budding wood grows more. And so with men— one generation grows, another dies away. Best is pretty subjective, but I find Richmond Lattimore 's translation of the Iliad and the Odyssey to be quite good.

Edit: Good if I could spell the guy's name right. I also enjoyed the Lattimore translation of The Iliad , I found it to be more accessible than the Fagles translation although I only read a little of the latter.

This is just my opinion, but you can't read the Iliad in prose. It just doesn't have the same effect. But I much prefer Fagles translation to the older ones. Especially when you read it aloud. You can hear the words play off each other. Its really quite brilliant.

I have to throw in a vote for Robert Fagles, given the criteria. As I see it, Lattimore has produced a better translation, and one that gives a better idea of what Homer wrote, but Fagles has produced a better and more enjoyable English epic poem. I'm not sure where he's up to with it, but Christopher Logue was translating it piecemeal and the first one - War Music - was brilliant. I started out reading both the Lattimore and Fagles translation and gave up on the Fagles after I got a feel for the characters and flow.

Many people prefer the Fagles. Thanks for starting this topic! The Iliad is on my list, and I've wondered what translation would be best to read.

Message 2- it looks like they've changed the location of that translation. Is this it? I went looking and this looked like the right thing.

Lombardo's version is what one might call "cutting-edge:" less concerned than conventional ones with straightforward translation of the Greek text in a way that closely represents its archaic milieu. I think it's fair to say that he's more interested in a kind of style that the current generation can read and relate to. His translations he has produced many are highly regarded, but not because they most faithfully represent the Greek: he wants to modernize the timeless qualities of Homer so that current readers can appreciate them within the culture with which they are familiar.

My preference is strongly in favor of a more straightforward, traditional translation that represents the Greek text: its language, the legendary world in which it is grounded, and its elevated, heroic style. Elevated style, of course, is one of the defining features of epic in general, and it is Homer in the Iliad who established the epic form for the Western world.

I recommend Lattimore's version in the strongest terms. It is more challenging than most or probably all of the widely used translations; but rising to the challenge--keeping in mind the fact that you will not understand everything the first time nobody even comes close to doing so --will take you as close as possible, unless you learn Greek an enterprise from which I would not discourage you , to the founding work and still one of the greatest works of Western literature.

There is a commentary for beginning readers of the poem--I think by M. Willcock, but I'm not sure--that is designed to complement the Lattimore version. I've never used it, but I have glanced through it; I surmise that it would be helpful. In any case, the work becomes more manageable to read when somebody who understands it explains a few points here and there.

Logue does not even know Greek, or at least didn't at the time War Music was completed. Stanley Lombardo said that when I took a graduate seminar with him in I have not read any of Logue myself. Criels, thanks. And except for an occasional archaism, his language is straightforward and unadorned. The action is densely packed and rapid, boisterous, full of energy.

I once had the chance to ask him how he justified his treatment of the epithets, and he told me he believed the poet would have inflected their meaning in performance, an explanation I find hard to credit. Thus he provides an excellent crib. Lattimore 8: As when in a garden a poppy droops its head to one side, heavy with the weight of its seed and with spring showers, so his head, weighed down by his helmet, slumped to one side.

Verity 8: While Lattimore excels Verity in delicacy, Fagles is stronger in the midst of the fray. Full of his own glory, Patroclus indulges in a poetic conceit, comparing the fallen eyeballs to oysters in the deep. Plunging overboard, even in choppy, heaving seas, just as he dives to ground from his war-car now.

Even these Trojans have their tumblers—what a leap! Fagles