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An Accessible Iliad: A 21st Century Rendering of Homer's Iliad
Rage and grief, betrayal and revenge, remorse and forgiveness, valiant warriors, despairing women, swindling gods - all feature in Homer's Iliad, the first extant work of literature in Western civilization.
However, for all its token renown, many people have only a hazy knowledge of the events portrayed in the poem. The story has come close to being lost, because most translations are virtually inaccessible to the modern reader, due to the long and tortuous complexity of the original text. Yet Homer's Iliad is one of the greatest an most poignant stories of anger, war and grief in Western civilization, a story that has resonated in human consciousness down the centuries. It is not a war chronicle, but the story of a personal quarrel which takes place within the context of a war and which precipitates horrifying consequences.
'Accessible Iliad' strives to make the Iliad accessible to the ordinary reader, while retaining the authenticity of the original poem. It is not a re-telling, nor simply an abridged version of the work, rather it follows the thread of the story in straightforward prose, the translation staying closely with the original, but omitting irrelevant passages an repetitions, compressing long-winded descriptions and brutally synopsizing those chapters which deal interminably with the ebb and flow of the fighting. In the interest of readers who may be encouraged to go on to a pure translation of the poem, the structure of the twenty-four books/chapters remains in place.
As attested by Plato and others, Homer's Iliad was widely diffused among the ordinary people of the ancient world. The rhapsodes or bards, who performed it orally over the centuries, would have amplified and attuned it to reach out to their particular audiences. The rationale for 'An Accessible Iliad' is simply that - to make a version of this amazing poem that reaches out to a 21st Century audience.
However, for all its token renown, many people have only a hazy knowledge of the events portrayed in the poem. The story has come close to being lost, because most translations are virtually inaccessible to the modern reader, due to the long and tortuous complexity of the original text. Yet Homer's Iliad is one of the greatest an most poignant stories of anger, war and grief in Western civilization, a story that has resonated in human consciousness down the centuries. It is not a war chronicle, but the story of a personal quarrel which takes place within the context of a war and which precipitates horrifying consequences.
'Accessible Iliad' strives to make the Iliad accessible to the ordinary reader, while retaining the authenticity of the original poem. It is not a re-telling, nor simply an abridged version of the work, rather it follows the thread of the story in straightforward prose, the translation staying closely with the original, but omitting irrelevant passages an repetitions, compressing long-winded descriptions and brutally synopsizing those chapters which deal interminably with the ebb and flow of the fighting. In the interest of readers who may be encouraged to go on to a pure translation of the poem, the structure of the twenty-four books/chapters remains in place.
As attested by Plato and others, Homer's Iliad was widely diffused among the ordinary people of the ancient world. The rhapsodes or bards, who performed it orally over the centuries, would have amplified and attuned it to reach out to their particular audiences. The rationale for 'An Accessible Iliad' is simply that - to make a version of this amazing poem that reaches out to a 21st Century audience.
338 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 22, 2019
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