9.11.2005
Iliad
by Homer, translated by Stanley Lombardo, 492 pgs, paperback
Amazon site
Overall Grade: A-
Excellent, excellent. I had been tracking down this book for a while because I loved Lombardo's translation of the Odyssey. This was no disappointment. Lombardo doesn't shy away from using modern language & manners of speech to get at a truer more gritty & realistic feel from the translation. It sounds more like real speech, but also more lyrical & beautiful than bits of other translations I've encountered.
The Iliad obviously is a story set within the Trojan War between the Greeks & the Trojans. Agammemon insults Achilles by taking the girl Achilles was given during their pillaging when he has to return his own to appease the gods. (The gods are still hard to get used to, they act so much like people.) Achilles refrains from the fighting & holds his troops back as well because of the slight to his honor, until his best friend & lover Patroclus is killed by Hector.
I thoroughly recommend this translation though, especially if you're thinking of taking a crack at this classic just for fun.
Amazon site
Overall Grade: A-
Excellent, excellent. I had been tracking down this book for a while because I loved Lombardo's translation of the Odyssey. This was no disappointment. Lombardo doesn't shy away from using modern language & manners of speech to get at a truer more gritty & realistic feel from the translation. It sounds more like real speech, but also more lyrical & beautiful than bits of other translations I've encountered.
The Iliad obviously is a story set within the Trojan War between the Greeks & the Trojans. Agammemon insults Achilles by taking the girl Achilles was given during their pillaging when he has to return his own to appease the gods. (The gods are still hard to get used to, they act so much like people.) Achilles refrains from the fighting & holds his troops back as well because of the slight to his honor, until his best friend & lover Patroclus is killed by Hector.
I thoroughly recommend this translation though, especially if you're thinking of taking a crack at this classic just for fun.
Labels: genre: fiction, genre: foreign language, genre: historical, media: book
