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Iliad (Hackett Classics)

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 538 ratings

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"Gripping. . . . Lombardo's achievement is all the more striking when you consider the difficulties of his task. . . . [He] manages to be respectful of Homer's dire spirit while providing on nearly every page some wonderfully fresh refashioning of his Greek. The result is a vivid and disarmingly hardbitten reworking of a great classic."
—Daniel Mendelsohn,
The New York Times Book Review
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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

With the publication of Robert Fagels's impressive translation of the Odyssey (Viking Penguin, 1996, pap.) and now this equally impressive translation of the Iliad by Lombardo, this year seems to blazon something of a Homeric renaissance. Lombardo concedes from the start that "Homer's musicality cannot be heard in any kind of English," and so he does not compose his Iliad in hexameters or, for that matter, in any standard, regular meter. Instead, based on his experience as an oral performer of Homer's poetry, he writes the lines "based on the cadences of natural speech." The result is a Homer that "is brought to life" for the modern reader with no loss of original integrity?the achievement of a scholar, translator, and performer. Accessible and readable as Lombardo's translation is, it is rendered even more so by the superb, comprehensive introduction by Sheila Murnaghan, which provides a rich but lucid discussion of the classical context of the epic. A helpful appendix provides thumbnail sketches of the major characters, a catalog of combat deaths, and an "Index of Speeches." This handsome, superbly done Iliad will be read and enjoyed by everyone. Highly recommended for all libraries.?Thomas F. Merrill, formerly with Univ. of Delaware
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"It is hard to overstate the attractions of this translation. In a rhythm sinewy and flexible, with language that is precise, lyrical and fresh, Lombardo's Iliad pulses with all the power and luminosity of the Greek. He shows extraordinary sensitivity to the images and aural effects of the ancient poem. There are brilliant touches on every page. . . . Altogether this is as good as Homer gets in English."
—Richard P. Martin, Princeton University

"The most daring, rapid and colloquial translation of Homer's Iliad that I know. [Lombardo's] taut and punchy verse conveys admirably and accurately the excitement and desperation of the battle, the urgency of the commanders, the occasional flashes of humor, the passion of Homer's narrative and the vivid and subtle humanity of his characters."
—Richard Janko, University College, London

"Lombardo's Iliad should be required for every History of Civilization class in America!"
—David R. Wilson, Brigham Young University 

"[R]emarkably true to the centrality of performance in Homer, the varied pacing and tone, the clarity, speed, narrative drive, and moments of breathtaking beauty."
—Rachel Hadas, Rutgers University

"Homer has been well served in recent years by good translators. But this reviewer predicts that the dominant translation for the 21st century will be this masterful version by Stanley Lombardo. . . . In her extremely useful Introduction, Murnaghan lucidly summarizes and makes available for the student and general reader the results of complex scholarship on Homer, and she offers sensitive guidance for reading the
Iliad as a work that documents the triumph of the human spirit and not merely as a war poem."
—Leon Golden,
CHOICE

"Accessible as Lombardo's translation is, it is rendered even more so by the superb Introduction by Sheila Murnaghan, which provides a rich but lucid discussion of the classical context of the epic. This handsome, superbly done
Iliad will be enjoyed by everyone. Highly recommended."
—T. F. Merrill,
Library Journal

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hackett Publishing (March 12, 1997)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 576 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0872203522
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0872203525
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 538 ratings

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Homer
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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.

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.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
538 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the translation wonderful and easy to read. They describe the story as entertaining and interesting. The book brings the Iliad to life with vivid, poetic language. Readers appreciate the modern idiom and the introduction by Susan Sarandon. However, some feel it's a little too long and the catalogues get tedious.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

33 customers mention "Translation quality"33 positive0 negative

Customers find the translation of the Iliad engaging and well-written. They appreciate the fluent, graceful language that brings the story to life with colloquial language. The language is modern yet classical, combining the best of modern vernacular with Homer's words. Readers appreciate the clear reading of the book.

"...There are beautifully constructed phrases as well: in one of the many battle scenes "death enfolded them" and Priam describes himself as being on..." Read more

"I really enjoyed this translation...." Read more

"...His "Iliad" combines the best of modern vernacular with the power of classical eloquence...." Read more

"...It is really not a bad translation, but if you want to take the most from The Iliad, get the Robert Fagels version...." Read more

19 customers mention "Story quality"19 positive0 negative

Customers find the story engaging and well-written. They describe it as a good retelling of the classic, with interesting messages and battle scenes. The advice is interesting when told, but boring when read. Readers appreciate the drama, suspense, and romance in the book. Overall, they consider it an enjoyable reread that highlights early history and modern aspects of the story.

"...But I was totally blown away by how totally modern this story remains...." Read more

"...world of heores and honor, but does make the messages and themes much easier to digest as the book reads more like a modern story plus heavy..." Read more

"...If you have always wanted to read this great classic but, like me, have shied away because it required too much effort, then get this translation..." Read more

"...The Lombardo version takes a timeless, fascinating story and merely takes it down slightly...." Read more

12 customers mention "Interest"12 positive0 negative

Customers find the book interesting and engaging. They appreciate its introduction that makes the complex work accessible. The book provides background and context, as well as good descriptions of the gods and their foibles. Readers are inspired and influenced by it.

"...Sheila Murnaghan has written a long, interesting introduction to the work...." Read more

"...The prefaces to L.'s Illiad and Odyssey are excellent, proving background and context. These are stories set in practically another world...." Read more

"...So much has been influenced and inspired by this work (Silverbow, anyone...?) that it really is worth re-visiting from time to time...." Read more

"...It also provided good descriptions of the gods and their foibles. And there were many." Read more

10 customers mention "Poetry"10 positive0 negative

Customers praise the translation as poetic, vivid, and engaging. They find it brings the Iliad to life with colloquial language and great detail in the battle scenes.

"...The Fagels translation is beautifully poetic and impossible to put down...." Read more

"...But much to my surprise - and delight - this translation was actually beautiful and lyrical in spots..." Read more

"...So much better. The battle scenes , great detail." Read more

"I am listening to this vivid and clear reading of the Iliad every evening and I am appreciating aspects of the Iliad that I never particularly liked..." Read more

6 customers mention "Idiom"6 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the modernization of Homer's words. They find the rhythm and Greekness of the original version preserved.

"...Lombardo attempts in his translation to bring the Iliad into an 'ultra-modern' idiom, and he does this with the heart of a poet himself...." Read more

"...in modern vernacular, yet with all the rhythm and Greekishness of the original Homer (I guess)...." Read more

"...a balance between using more archaic language and putting Homer's words in a more modern style...." Read more

"Another excellent literary classic from Homer! The poetry is beautiful, the messages noteable, and the story entertaining...." Read more

6 customers mention "Introduction"6 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the introduction. They find it engaging and a good way to start the book. The introduction by Susan Sarandon is considered fine.

"...Also, while I'm sure the Introduction supplemented the reading decently, I thought it was pedantic and pretentious...." Read more

"...probably mandatory in a recording of this nature, and Susan Sarandon's introduction is fine, I found her preamble to each book of the 'Iliad' quite..." Read more

"...And before I forget, the introduction is excellent and not something you want to skip over. So literally I cannot put the book down...." Read more

"...time, or if you can't comprehend Shakespeare, then this is a good starting place...." Read more

5 customers mention "Enjoyment"5 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book. They find it engaging and vivid.

"...This is a revelation, so moving, so fun! And, at last, an appendix including the correct oronunciations! Thank you Stanley Lombardo!!!!" Read more

"Enjoyable." Read more

"...A great experience." Read more

"This is a wonderful translation-vivid, poetic and engaging." Read more

5 customers mention "Length"0 positive5 negative

Customers find the book too long. They mention the catalogues get tedious, the introduction is too long and summarizes the entire story, and some lines are just too long to fit on the Kindle's screen.

"...There is a good reason why it's called a classic. Sure, it's a little long and the catalogues get a bit tedious...." Read more

"...These are nothing more than a plot-revealing, in fact plot-diminishing summary of what is about to happen...." Read more

"...is with the Kindle version---quite frankly, some of the lines are just too long to fit on the Kindle's screen without shrinking the text down..." Read more

"...Aside from the content, the introduction is really long and it summarizes the entire story. Don't bother with it unless you have to...." Read more

Not is my expectation
2 out of 5 stars
Not is my expectation
ILIAD book arrived with thin cover-book, while my order is used-very good hard cover book.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2003
    A lot of things that were required reading in college should not have been; that is not the case for Homer's Illiad. There is a good reason why it's called a classic. Sure, it's a little long and the catalogues get a bit tedious. But I was totally blown away by how totally modern this story remains. The battle scenes are as bloody as anything about modern warefare we see on the nighly news. (The book cover has a photograph taken of World War II soldiers landing at Normandy entitled "Into the Jaws of Death.) And while reading this, I opened up an issue of USA Today and see that Brad Pitt will be starring in a movie based on this epic.
    The Iliad does have so much universal appeal. For example, the scene where Hector's son is frightened by his father's helmet and cries as Hector attempts to say goodbye before going into battle. Or when King Priam comes to plead with Achilles for the body of Hector and Achilles suggests that he eat in order to assuage his grief for his beloved fallen son. How many times have we all taken food to our bereaved friends and family. Sometimes it's all we know to do.
    If the purists are upset about this translation, I am not. Parts of this work read like a modern novel. In addition to an occasional four letter word, we see phrases like "get the hell out," "put me out of commission," "tough customer," and "you're nothing but trash," to name a few. There are beautifully constructed phrases as well: in one of the many battle scenes "death enfolded them" and Priam describes himself as being on the "threshold of old age."
    Sheila Murnaghan has written a long, interesting introduction to the work. There is also a catalogue of "Combat Deaths," and who killed whom if you are keeping up with that sort of thing, as well as a list of the speeches and an index of the major Greeks, Trojans and, of course, Zeus and his crowd.
    A thoroughly enjoyable reread!
    10 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2017
    I really enjoyed this translation. The word choice doesn't detract from this excellent delve into the world of heores and honor, but does make the messages and themes much easier to digest as the book reads more like a modern story plus heavy violence.

    A note in general on this book:

    I think this is a great read academically to try and puzzle out how these themes may have translated to cultural values of some age of greek society (read M. Finley's World of Odysseus and The Odyssey at the same time would be my recommendation).

    Other readers may simply enjoy the story, although a word of warning, I feel like female readers may have a hard time getting past their lack of representstion in this book. Any representation that does exist is very superficial and roles for both genders are clearly carved out with power and honor for the house clearly being the males role. It's very focused on ancient greek male values and often relationships and interations bothered me. Given it's less personal for me as I am male, I might have had a harder time getting threw this if i was a member of the segment that is repressed constantly in the story. I overcame this because 1) it's a story 2) it seems to me many characters are trapped by their roles and the book plays with the illusion of choice. We as modern readers simply view the men in the story as having a choice and the women having none, but if both men and women have no choice it's more tolerable, even though the power dynamic is still so one sided.

    Reading this book showed me an ancient perspective I had never before percieved or attempted to know. After reading this and The Odyssey, I am convienced I could spend the rest of my life trying to understand the ancient greeks and still have questions on my death bed. I am not saying this book changed me and now I am going to live my life like a Greek hero, but understanding an ancient perspective can perhaps help us shape a future we like to pretend has fully departed from our ancient roots.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2015
    Having attempted many times over the years to read Homer's "Iliad," but being frustrated at every turn, I was thrilled to come across Stanley Lombardo's brilliant translation. Previously, I had turned to the modern classics by Lattimore and Fitzgerald. And as well done and powerful as they were, I somehow did not find them as smooth-flowing and readable as I could have wished.
    Lombardo has changed all that. His "Iliad" combines the best of modern vernacular with the power of classical eloquence. When the men are in battle, skulls get crushed and entrails ruptured with graphic and immediate violence. Yet when the heroes address one another or the gods converse, the language soars to the appropriate heights of formality.
    I was drawn in from the first line, and it has not let me go. I am now reading Book 19, and Achilles has just gotten his new armor from Hephaestus via his mother, Thetis. He is about to join the battle at last, and the suspense is every bit as thrilling as it is supposed to be. In fact, I often find myself so pulled into the story and the poetry that I begin to read it aloud (albeit very quietly) and my wife has to remind me that I'm speaking. Nonetheless, do yourself a favor and find a quiet place where you can be alone and read some of these immortal lines aloud. The power and sweep of the dialogue and the narrative will amaze you. In fact, Lombardo himself worked and reworked this translation, in part, as a performance piece, and he has himself performed portions of it many times.
    Now, I am no scholar. I do not read Greek. I cannot tell you if this translation hews to the original with extreme accuracy. But I can tell you this: It will get you to READ it. If you have always wanted to read this great classic but, like me, have shied away because it required too much effort, then get this translation immediately. Leave the scholarship to the scholars. This is just one hell of a great story.
    Next up, Lombardo's translation of "The Odyssey." I can't wait.
    20 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • tiresias
    4.0 out of 5 stars good writing,
    Reviewed in France on August 1, 2015
    modern vocabulary (end 20th century), good imagery, nice notes; good version to start with, good version to add if you're a homer buff
  • Matt Jenkins
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Most Accessible Translation
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2011
    Stanley Lombardo's translation of the Iliad, one of the most significant works in the western canon, is to my mind the most accessible translation I've seen. A number of years ago I tried to read a different translation and gave up after a couple of chapters thinking life was to short. However Lombardo's translation is fresh and full of energy and engages you in the story. Some will no doubt find the colloquial elements and modern English not to their tastes prefering their classics to have a more archaic feel. However for the reader new to the Iliad and for the casual reader after an engaging, readable translation this is a great place to start.

    There is no such thing, in my opinion, as a perfect translation. Something will always be lost. As such I would recommened those with a strong intererset in the Iliad to consult a number of translations. The most readily available are probably the Lattimore, Fagles, Fitzgerald and Rieu translations (though there are many more).

    Lombardo, who is Professor of Classics at the University of Kansas, has also produced translations of The Odyssey and The Aeneid (Links are to Kindle editions. Paperback editions are also available.)
    One person found this helpful
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  • AP
    5.0 out of 5 stars Blood fiction
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2013
    Rather than reviewing Homer, which I have neither the time nor vocabulary for, my review is for the audio book. Nicely presented, good quality box set and book of words, and 12 discs. The content seems to be, to me as a Brit, an americanisation of the text. This is both an interesting slant, and often amusing, giving the work a modern interpretation. Stanley Lombardo does not read the text, he acts it enthusiastically, making for a really dramatic listen. Susan whatserface, who provides the synopses, comes across as stiff in comparison, but the content and delivery is both clear and concise. Because there are two voices, and because of Lombardo's acting, the volume fluctuates, so if you want this for bedtime lulls, you'll be kept up all night wondering what will become of big Ajax. If you want a shortcut into the work itself, you'll be hard pressed to find such an accessible presentation.
  • an
    4.0 out of 5 stars 10/10 translation, 2/10 children suitability
    Reviewed in Germany on July 1, 2024
    Make no mistake, there are absolutely no issues with this edition. However I would say it is more appealing for scholars rather than children. Excellent translation, excellent paperback print, small print, black-and-white not particularly children-friendly illustrations. As an adult I enjoy it greatly, I would read it aloud, however I doubt any child would read it by himself.
  • Sarah S. Alfadl
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very readable
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2021
    This is a relatively recent translation of The Iliad into modern English. As such, it is easier to read than many of the older translations.