The Iliad

by Homer; Fagles, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780140445923
• ISBN10: 0140445927
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781101153635
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-07-01
• Publisher: PENGUIN BOOKS
• More Book Details

Summary

Epic masterpiece chronicles last days of Trojan War - quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon, siege of Troy, death of Hector, Trojan Horse, many other incidents and events. Celebrated Samuel Butler prose translation.

Author Biography

Homer was probably born around 725 B.C. on the Coast of Asia Minor, now the coast of Turkey, but then really a part of Greece. Homer was the first Greek writer whose work survives.

He was one of a long line of bards, or poets, who worked in the oral tradition. Homer and other bards of the time could recite, or chant, long epic poems. Both works attributed to Homer—the Iliad and the Odyssey—are over ten thousand lines long in the original. Homer must have had an amazing memory but was helped by the formulaic poetry style of the time. In the Iliad, Homer sang of death and glory, of a few days in the struggle between the Greeks and the Trojans. Mortal men played out their fate under the gaze of the gods. The Odyssey is the original collection of tall traveller’s tales. Odysseus, on his way home from the Trojan War, encounters all kinds of marvels from one-eyed giants to witches and beautiful temptresses. His adventures are many and memorable before he gets back to Ithaca and his faithful wife Penelope.

We can never be certain that both these stories belonged to Homer. In fact, “Homer” may not be a real name but a kind of nickname, meaning perhaps “the hostage” or “the blind one.” Whatever the truth of their origin, the two stories, developed around three thousand years ago, may well still be read in three thousand years’ time.

Robert Fagles (1933–2008) was Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He was the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His translations include Sophocles’s Three Theban Plays, Aeschylus’s Oresteia (nominated for a National Book Award), Homer’s Iliad (winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets), Homer’s Odyssey, and Virgil's Aeneid.

Bernard Knox (1914–2010) was Director Emeritus of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He taught at Yale University for many years. Among his numerous honors are awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His works include The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy, Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles’ Tragic Hero and His Time and Essays Ancient and Modern (awarded the 1989 PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award).

Table of Contents

Translator's Preface	ix
INTRODUCTION	3	(74)
Introduction	3	(62)
The Spelling and Pronunciation of Homeric Names	65	(3)
MAPS	68	(9)
1. Homeric Geography: Mainland Greece	68	(2)
2. Homeric Geography: The Peloponnese	70	(2)
3. Homeric Geography: The Aegean and Asia Minor Inset: Troy and Vicinity	72	(5)
HOMER: The Iliad	77	(540)
BOOK 1: The Rage of Achilles	77	(22)
BOOK 2: The Great Gathering of Armies	99	(29)
BOOK 3: Helen Reviews the Champions	128	(17)
BOOK 4: The Truce Erupts in War	145	(19)
BOOK 5: Diomedes Fights the Gods	164	(31)
BOOK 6: Hector Returns to Troy	195	(19)
BOOK 7: Ajax Duels with Hector	217	(17)
BOOK 8: The Tide of Battle Turns	231	(20)
BOOK 9: The Embassy to Achilles	251	(25)
BOOK 10: Marauding Through the Night	276	(20)
BOOK 11: Agamemnon's Day of Glory	296	(29)
BOOK 12: The Trojans Storm the Rampart	325	(16)
BOOK 13: Battling for the Ships	341	(28)
BOOK 14: Hera Outflanks Zeus	369	(18)
BOOK 15: The Achaean Armies at Bay	387	(25)
BOOK 16: Patroclus Fights and Dies	412	(30)
BOOK 17: Menelaus' Finest Hour	442	(25)
BOOK 18: The Shield of Achilles	467	(21)
BOOK 19: The Champion Arms for Battle	488	(15)
BOOK 20: Olympian Gods in Arms	503	(17)
BOOK 21: Achilles Fights the River	520	(21)
BOOK 22: The Death of Hector	541	(18)
BOOK 23: Funeral Games for Patroclus	559	(29)
BOOK 24: Achilles and Priam	588	(29)
NOTES
The Genealogy of the Royal House of Troy	617	(2)
Textual Variants from the Oxford Classical Text	619	(2)
Notes on the Translation	621	(14)
Suggestions for Further Reading	635	(4)
Pronouncing Glossary	639