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The Iliad of Homer 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Homer (Author), Richard P. Martin (Introduction), Richmond Lattimore (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 1,088 ratings
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"Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus / and its devastation." For sixty years, that's how Homer has begun the Iliad in English, in Richmond Lattimore's faithful translation—the gold standard for generations of students and general readers.



This long-awaited new edition of Lattimore's Iliad is designed to bring the book into the twenty-first century—while leaving the poem as firmly rooted in ancient Greece as ever. Lattimore's elegant, fluent verses—with their memorably phrased heroic epithets and remarkable fidelity to the Greek—remain unchanged, but classicist Richard Martin has added a wealth of supplementary materials designed to aid new generations of readers. A new introduction sets the poem in the wider context of Greek life, warfare, society, and poetry, while line-by-line notes at the back of the volume offer explanations of unfamiliar terms, information about the Greek gods and heroes, and literary appreciation. A glossary and maps round out the book.



The result is a volume that actively invites readers into Homer's poem, helping them to understand fully the worlds in which he and his heroes lived—and thus enabling them to marvel, as so many have for centuries, at Hektor and Ajax, Paris and Helen, and the devastating rage of Achilleus.

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  1. ISBN-13
    978-0226470498
  2. Edition
    1st
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    University of Chicago Press
  5. Publication date
    September 19, 2011
  6. Language
    English
  7. File size
    6531 KB
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“I had an invaluable and inspiring high school teacher, Robert Cooley, who introduced me to both Lattimore's The Iliad and The Odyssey during my senior year. It was my first experience with the power of drama and poetry combined. Little did I know that I would spend the rest of my life (especially professionally) searching for experiences that would be as satisfying. The fact that I fell in love for the first time with the guy sitting next to me didn’t hurt my journey through those books either.” -- Laura Linney ― T Magazine

"Martin's introduction surpasses all rivals. . . . Lattimore's Iliad is best for those who want to feel the epic from the loins up, its rush, its reprieves, and its overwhelming rage." ― Chronicle of Higher Education

"Both lucid and learned, Lattimore writes with a certain grace, capturing the combination of nobility and speed which over 100 years ago Matthew Arnold famously heard in Homer’s work. . . . Read Richmond Lattimore's translation for the epic scale and narrative of Homer's poem."

― Economist

About the Author

Richmond Lattimore (1906–1984) was a poet, translator, and longtime professor of Greek at Bryn Mawr College.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0069SJMQU
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; 1st edition (September 19, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 19, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 6531 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 608 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 1,088 ratings

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Richard Lattimore

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
1,088 global ratings
Lattimore's Iliad - beautiful English verse without butchering the original Greek
5 Stars
Lattimore's Iliad - beautiful English verse without butchering the original Greek
60 years of Lattimore's Iliad, and no other English translation blends so beautifully structured English verse, and the original Greek. Lattimore remained faithful to the Greek, and is a joy to read.I tend to pair Lattimore's Iliad with Fitzgerald's translations of the Odyssey (more readable, less precise) and the Aeneid, for the best of the Classical poems (Lattomore's Odyssey next, then Fagles - Mandelbaum's Aeneid a close second).
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Top reviews from the United States

John Dinger
5.0 out of 5 stars Very well written with great appendix.
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2024
Verified Purchase
The Illiad is not an easy read due to the number of characters and their relationships with others. It's a mental exercise until you get the hang of it. The thing is that you don't have to know every little thing that's going on between these characters to enjoy the story. But if you do want to know, the author has written a really nice appendix to get to the details.
It's also really helpful to have Google to look up some of the details in which would be out of the scope of the book to provide. Definitely an educational and fun read and research challenge.
Many things that I did not know about the Greek gods and their interactions with mortals on virtually every level. And I mean 'every'. Seems that the gods needed the mortals more than the other way around.
One person found this helpful
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Nick Wilson
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent version of Iliad
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2014
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This is my second journey into the complete Iliad. The first began with Samuel Butler's translation in prose, which reads easily at an astonishing pace. But my e-copy of Butler's version had no notes or references. I decided to cross-reference Butler's Roman names of gods and places with the Greek, and keeping track of them detracted from my sense of experiencing an authentic work.
A friend recommended Lattimore's translation for 2 reasons: His use of Greek names and places, but to a greater degree, the care he took to simulate the poems' rhythm, the 'dactylic hexameter' used in the original Greek text.
Either way, for the novice, The Iliad is a satisfying read, when accompanied by plenty of Googling and Wikipedia to help with the background and the myths, the old Greek poems' importance and their legacy.
The detailed, contemporary introduction by Richard Martin in this Chicago press edition is truly the best reference you could have before launching head-on into the Iliad (you could even almost pack away Wikipedia). He explains poetic conventions, gives history of the text and collects all known studies about the identity of Homer: was he one genius author, or many authors refining great works over generations? His comparisons of the many English translations fascinate me, from the old Shakespearian-era attempts that imposed rhyming lines, to a very modern translation that reads like a cliched Hollywood action script: most of these translations seem worthy. But it reinforces in my mind the validity of Lattimore's noble translation, as one of the most authentic ways for a humble reader of 20th-century English like myself, to connect with the age and greatness of the poem.
12 people found this helpful
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Molly Pieroni
5.0 out of 5 stars The Epic
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2024
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I came into this epic thinking that it would be about the Trojan War, as many do––but I found myself quickly disillusioned. While there were times where the plot dragged us through long monologues deeply engrained in myth, I think that Homer does an excellent job of showing us the countable and countless in war, or the anger at specific figures or the heroic strucutre itself. Read as part of CLST480.
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puck62
5.0 out of 5 stars Lattimore and Homer hit at Homer.
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2024
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Lattimore is easily the best translator of Homer in the universe. I read him first in the
1970s. Still reading him today. And only him.
2 people found this helpful
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Greg Polansky
4.0 out of 5 stars Epic. A Must for Anyone.
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2015
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This is a story that seems infused into our world. We know bits and pieces because the story is so good that thousands of years later it still forms part of our culture. That tells you something about the staying power of the story. And why everyone should read it.

This is a story about War. Yes, capitalized. But this is not only an epic war between the Achaeans and Trojans over the most beautiful woman of her Age, but a confrontation between the Gods themselves. I feel like the Achaean side is more popular in our consciousness than the Trojan side. Perhaps because they were the victors. We have Achilles, Ajax, Agamemnon, Patroclus, Odysseus, Menelaus, and Nestor. But on the Trojan side really we only have Hector, Aeneas, Paris, and Priam. And then of course there is Helen over whom the war was fought. Then there are the Gods. These moments when we see them speak and interact are truly divine. On the side of the Achaeans we have Athena, Poseidon, Hera, and Hephaestus. On the side of the Trojans we have Apollo, Ares, Artemis, and Aphrodite. Zeus is neutral. Though not as neutral as it would seem at first. He too has his sympathies. The war between the gods really makes the story interesting on entirely new levels because of their capabilities.

The edition I read was translated by Richard Lattimore. Amazon seems to have combined the reviews for various editions together, which is not at all pleasing. I read it on an iPad mini and it was fantastic. The introduction explains a lot - for instance, though the war is ten years long, we only see the last year of the war. And we don't see the end that we are familiar with - the use of the Trojan Horse and the end of Troy. Why? Because they are not in the Iliad as linear story. These events are told in flashbacks and flash forwards. And also in other works, some of which are now lost to us. Sadly these lost works seem to fill in a lot of the events that are told in flashback and flash forward. So the Cypria tells what led to the Trojan War while the Aethiopis tells what happens immediately after Hector is killed. These books are all part of the Epic Cycle, most of which is now lost to us. The Lattimore edition also contains a lot of good notes that help fill in the backstory and explain the events going on.

If you are interested in literature or in European history, then this is a great book to read. Its impact on our culture is incalculable. It's also a fantastic story.
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Top reviews from other countries

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David Jackson
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Edition
Reviewed in Sweden on October 26, 2023
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Just here to confirm all the good reviews of Lattimore's translation. Yes, the syntax is very occasionlt a mangled but a few books in the reader gets used to this. One tip for those new to the Iliad is to check Lattimore's spelling of familiar names notably Achillies and Ajax to avoid having to look them up. Apart from that just dive in. The names index and the notes are both excellent .
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Keri and Josh
5.0 out of 5 stars Book
Reviewed in Canada on June 24, 2020
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Gave as a gift and he loves it so much!
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Alex
4.0 out of 5 stars Great translation, not really usefull prephrase
Reviewed in Germany on February 26, 2021
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Indeed a great translation of the Iliad, that provides the clear text structure of the original.
I don't recommend to buy it for the sake of prephrase. The only map in it is taken from other books (like the oxrord history of the classical world) and can be found elsewhere. The explanations themselves do not clear out the meaning of the poem before you read it. After the reading they are meaningless. If you need a reference, use encyclopedias or other research texts. (Google will also work)
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Alex
4.0 out of 5 stars Great translation, not really usefull prephrase
Reviewed in Germany on February 26, 2021
Indeed a great translation of the Iliad, that provides the clear text structure of the original.
I don't recommend to buy it for the sake of prephrase. The only map in it is taken from other books (like the oxrord history of the classical world) and can be found elsewhere. The explanations themselves do not clear out the meaning of the poem before you read it. After the reading they are meaningless. If you need a reference, use encyclopedias or other research texts. (Google will also work)
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teresa
5.0 out of 5 stars perfecto
Reviewed in Spain on December 16, 2019
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Tal cual se ve en la fotos. Muy buena edición y la mejor traducción al inglés que he encontrado. Lo recomiendo.
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Jack Middleton
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent publication
Reviewed in Australia on April 11, 2024
Verified Purchase
A brilliant publication with an introduction and index. Ideal indentations. Fine paper. The spine does not even crease. The cover art leaves much to be desired however.
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