5/24/2023 0 Comments Iliad in english![]() ![]() 2500 years! That’s more than twice the time that has passed between the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and now. I still remember the first time I really realised how amazing – just how unbelievably mind-blowing – it is to be reading the words of a poet who was writing over 2500 years ago. It’s the sound of the words – and since I’m lucky enough to have studied ancient Greek, that’s something that I think really lies at the heart of the poetry. It’s the uniqueness of the epithets – ‘the wine-dark sea’, ‘swift-footed Achilles’, and all the other well-known collocations. It’s the rhythm of the ancient Greek poetry, written in a dialect that would have sounded old-fashioned even by the time democracy came to Athens in around 500 BC. In the end, you’re reading Homer’s Iliad, and if you just want to cut to the chase and get to the content of the story then you will get the same timeless tale whichever translation you pick: the famous story of Achilles’ rage, the devastating siege of Troy, and Hector’s tragic death.īut, to me at least, the Iliad is so much more than just its plot. Well, the answer to that is yes – and no. How on earth are you supposed to pick one – and aren’t they all translations of the same text anyway?ĭoes it really matter which one you choose? It can be disorientating to say the least when you walk into a bookshop and see the sheer numbers of different translations of the Iliad on the shelf. ![]()
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