Synopsis
TOLSTOY CALLED THE ILIAD A miracle; Goethe said that it always thrust him into a state of astonishment. Homer’s story is thrilling, and his Greek is perhaps the most beautiful poetry ever sung or written. But until now, even the best English translations haven’t been able to re-create the energy and simplicity, the speed, grace, and pulsing rhythm of the original.
In Stephen Mitchell’s Iliad, the epic story resounds again across 2,700 years, as if the lifeblood of its heroes Achilles and Patroclus, Hector and Priam flows in every word. And we are there with them, amid the horror and ecstasy of war, carried along by a poetry that lifts even the most devastating human events into the realm of the beautiful.
Mitchell’s Iliad is the first translation based on the work of the preeminent Homeric scholar Martin L. West, whose edition of the original Greek identifies many passages that were added after the Iliad was first written down, to the detriment of the music and the story. Omitting these hundreds of interpolated lines restores a dramatically sharper, leaner text. In addition, Mitchell’s illuminating introduction opens the epic still further to our understanding and appreciation.
Now, thanks to Stephen Mitchell’s scholarship and the power of his language, the Iliad’s ancient story comes to moving, vivid new life.
Product Description
HardCover. Pub Date: October 2011 Pages: 544 Publisher: Free Press A Classic of Western literature was for three Millennia. Homer's Iliad captivates modern Readers-AS IT DID ancient the Listeners-with its tale of gods And warriors at the Siege of Troy. Now Herbert Jordan's line-for-line translation illiantly renders the original Greek into English blank verse-the poetic form most closely resembling our spoken language.Raising the bar set by Richmond Lattimore in 1951. Jordan employs a pleasing five-beat meter and avoids unnecessary filler. The result. an economical translation. captures the force and vigor of the original poem.E. Christian Kopff's introduction to this volume sets the stage and credits Jordan with conveying the action and movement of the Iliad in contemporary language and a supple verse. This new Iliad offers twenty-first-century readers the thrill of a timel...
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