Penguin Classics Homer The Iliad

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See, e.g., H. Frisk, Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg 1960, pp. 270-271; P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, Paris 1968, I, pp. 197-198; B. Snell, Lexicon des frühgriechischen Epos, Hamburg 1979, I, pp. 616-618. The Iliad is one episode among many in Homer’s epics, and it may have been assumed that listeners of the original spoken performance would be familiar with all the players in this war. It is argued by some, including British scholar M.L. West, that The Iliad has had pieces added to it over the years. Stephen Mitchell follows West’s scholarship and strips out the extra passages, a notion expanded upon in a review of Mitchell’s translation by classicist Daniel Mendelsohn in The New Yorker (2011). Mitchell’s translation may be the most readable, the most listenable one in English. It is also the shortest. Mitchell also shortens the lines in English so that they have speed and momentum for an impressive delivery.

MARIA CHICCO, DHMSA, MBBS, MRCS, graduated in Medicine from King’s College London in 2016 and is currently a surgical trainee in the Oxford deanery. As part of her studies, she completed the Diploma in the History of Medicine awarded by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London. In this framework, she conducted research on several topics in medical humanities and published on the development of medical manuals and on the history of the Italian Hospital in London. With this in mind, I can't help but suspect that there's a deliberate parallel between the epic and the sudden collapse of the Mycenaean civilization, along with all the Achaean kingdoms.

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In sum, the overall commentary is very rich in details; most of Jones’ notes are indeed notable. However, in this section, too, there are some shortcomings, not unexpected in so long a commentary. Upon the deep the while he strove
To save himself from death and bring
His comrades home.
Of these things now,

Regarding the inner didactic purpose of the poetry according to the archaic mentality, see, e.g., W. J. Verdenius, The Principles of Greek literary Criticism, “Mnemosyne” 36 (1983), espec. pp. 31-36. As to the ancient sources, it could be enough to mention, e.g., Xenophanes fr. B 10 D-K; Heraclitus fr. B 50, 57 D-K; Herodotus II, 53; Aristophanes Frogs 1031-1036a. Jones simply hints at their Mycenaean origin in the comment on 7. 219 (p. 135). Also, as to the general weapons there is a misleading statement: Jones writes (p. 15): “all their [Homer’s heroes] armour and weapons are bronze”. Instead, there is, at least, one exception in 4.123 that has caused many discussions (see also 7. 141 and Odyssea 21.10-11). It is true that the exception is pointed out in the commentary of that book (p. 98). However, someone that reads the general introduction and not the commentary on every single book, has, at least at this stage, inaccurate information. I point this out not only for reasons of precision, which should obviously be adhered to the extent possible, but since this fact also indicates that the Homeric picture is not as invariable as Jones at times seems to imply. Fitzgerald’s Odyssey and Iliad] open up once more the unique greatness of Homer’s art at the level above the formula; yet at the same time they do not neglect the brilliant texture of Homeric verse at the level of the line and the phrase.”– The Yale Review The proem of H.’s translation is presented below, followed by those of other translations (I offer brief comments on the former, but not, for reasons of space, the latter):We notice immediately the difference in rhythm and tone when we compare the 1913 translation of Butcher and Lang: ichor : since gods are immortal and live off ambrosia and nectar, they cannot have blood in their veins, because blood is mortal, created from the food mortals eat, and when it is shed, mortals die (though cf. 5.870!). So gods must have something different in their veins — here called ichor (for whatever reason). Note that the Greek word, brotos, means ‘mortal’ and ‘blood’; and ambrosia means ‘not-mortal, immortal’ or ‘no-blood’. One of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer's Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode in the Trojan War. The recent (2017) Peter Green translation, begun when Green was nearly 90 years old, is similarly easy to read; Green tells us that he began in a relaxed attitude for diversion and completed the whole within a year. Colin Burrow reviewed Green's translation in the June 18th 2015 edition of the London Review of Books. Neither the writing or the reading of this version is anguished or tortured, and Burrow points out that Green was a historian but didn't allow that to obfuscate or weigh down the poetry. Hammond's precise and highly readable translation embraces not only the immediate human appeal of the Odyssey but also much of what is alien to modern literary culture: 'modes of speech, insistent narrative sequencing, the wealth of formulaic repetition' ... [It] offers Anglophone readers a faithful and direct experience of the style and manner of Homer's great poem.

Verse translations by W. Cowper, R. Fagles, R. Fitzgerald, R. Lattimore, S. Lombardo, and G. Chapman are available at most bookstores; for prose, those by G. Palmer, E.V. Rieu, and W. Shrewing. More advanced students are served by A. Cook’s translation, and the edition with extensive commentary by R.D. Dawe. For a comprehensive history of English translations of Homer, see Homer in English (New York: Penguin, 1996), ed. George Steiner, pp. 350-355. WANDERING SO FAR WHEN HE HAD PLUNDERED
Troy’s sacred citadel. And many
The men whose cities he beheld,
Whose minds he learned to know, and many
The sorrows that his soul endured Not when the day came when the gods
Granted, as circling season passed,
That he might once again return
To Ithaca—not even then,
With those that loved him, might he find
A rest from strife. And all the godsSeven Greek cities claim the honour of being the birthplace of Homer (c. 8th-7th century BC), the poet to whom the composition of the Iliadand Odyssey are attributed. The Iliad is the oldest surviving work of Western literature, but the identity - or even the existence - of Homer himself is a complete mystery, with no reliable biographical information having survived. Menes" on the other hand signifies a specific kind of rage, a divine rage, the intensity of which is always associated with the gods (like when Apollo shoots his arrows), but never with humans; ie a word reserved for Gods. Jones’ commentary does not omit to point out and discuss passages that are specifically object of interest of analytical scholars (see, e.g., on 8. 80, p. 141; on. 11. 609, p. 180, etc.) nor cases concerning specific lines’ Homeric authenticity (see, e.g., on 8. 548+550-2, p. 146; 9. 458-461, p. 158; 18. 604-605, p. 261; 23. 806, p. 307; 24. 45, p. 312). There are also several interesting notes on the issue of translation, although these are, unfortunately, not as numerous as one would expect from the title of the book. In these notes, Jones often focuses on what the Greek word or sentence means, which translation is preferable, and why. Some of the translation’s notes are acute, explained in detail, and show an effort to avoid too modern and anachronistic interpretation. Homeric Geography: Mainland Greece 2. Homeric Geography: The Peloponnese 3. Homeric Geography: The Aegean and Asia Minor Inset: Troy and Vicinity Homer was probably born around 725BC 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.