This groundbreaking English version by Robert Fagles is the most important recent translation of Homer's great epic poem. The verse translation has been hailed by scholars as the new standard, providing an Iliad that delights modern sensibility and aesthetic without sacrificing the grandeur and particular genius of Homer's own style and language. The Iliad is one of the two great epics of Homer, and is typically described as one of the greatest war stories of all time, but to say the Iliad is a war story does not begin to describe the emotional sweep of its action and characters: Achilles, Helen, Hector, and other heroes of Greek myth and history in the tenth and final year of the Greek siege of Troy.


From Library Journal
Why another Iliad? Just as Homer's work existed most fully in its performance, so the Homeric texts call periodically for new translations. With this in mind, Fagles offers a new verse rendering of the Iliad. Maneuvering between the literal and the literary, he tries with varying degrees of success to suggest the vigor and manner of the original while producing readable poetry in English. Thus, he avoids the anachronizing of Robert Fitzgerald's translation, while being more literal than Richard Lattimore's. Fagles's efforts are accompanied by a long and penetrating introduction by Bernard Knox, coupled with detailed glossary and textual notes.- T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Helen, queen of Sparta and the most beautiful woman in the world, is kidnapped by Paris, a Trojan prince. Hungry for revenge, the Greek Army lays siege on Troy. For nine long years they are unsuccessful -- until they come up with a plan for their greatest-ever attack on the city. For victory or death the two armies will collide for the final time ...

FROM THE CRITICS

James Davidson

Stanley Lombardo's new Iliad has a photograph of a D-Day landing on the cover and makes a reckless dash for the idiomatic. It is generally a fine and enjoyable version, but its colloquialism sometimes lapses jarringly, occasionally amusingly, into cliche.
Copyright 1983 The H.W. Wilson Company. All rights reserved. - The London Review of Books

Daniel Mendelsohn

Lombardo 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 sometimes disarmingly hard-bitten reworking of a great classic. . . . Not all of Lombardo's gambles pay off, and his attention-grabbing colloquialisms sometimes undermine the force of the original. . . . Still, thesuccess of so many of Lombardo's choices more than makes up for the false notes. . . . That {Lombardo's} daring new 'Iliad' is so specifically of and for our time reminds us--and right now it's a point worth being reminded of--that Homer's poem is for all time. - The New York Times

Children's Literature - Ravay Snow-Renner, Ph. D.

This work uses fast-paced prose to tell the epic tale of the ten-year siege of Troy by the Greeks after Paris' abduction of the beautiful Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Greece. True to the original by Homer, the role of the gods is emphasized throughout, from the prologue, which describes Paris' encounter with Athene, Hera and Aphrodite, through the epilogue, in which Athene is credited with the idea for the Trojan Horse. This version emphasizes the epic's high adventure aspect—focusing on battles, heroes and the role of the gods. The author demonstrates considerable familiarity with the original and achieves an admirable fluency in combining the original's formal poetic language patterns and imagery and an engaging, swift narrative style. Victor Ambrus' distinctive style and active illustrations do credit to the story, although, in some instances, the transition from full-color (in previous editions) to black and white has resulted in unclear images: the value ranges in some illustrations are too close for clear distinction among figures. Although it does not address the Iliad's entire scope (leaving out some characters in the interest of brevity and cohesiveness), the work is extremely valuable for teaching young people the basic plot of the Iliad and for providing them with a good approximation of its poetic devices. 2004, Kingfisher/Houghton Mifflin, Ages 8 to 14.

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