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A Guide to The Iliad: Based on the translation by Robert Fitzgerald
Used book. Good condition
309 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 15, 2009
Of course Keats' "on first looking into chapman's homer" comes to mind - realms of gold - and I refer to this despite the truth, that the iliad is really a million terrible deaths, chronicled in detail - and though keats must have been speaking of the odyssey - what comes over you is a sense of a thread running through all of literature - "the tradition," that they speak of - here it is - our tradition - the source of everything we write and tell. And I really like the gods, the bickering gifted immortals.
March 26, 2016
The Iliad is one of my favorite poems and I've always felt it was a shame that no one had put together a good translation with copious notes for someone who wants to go deeper into the work and the society/culture that created it. (Something like Robert Alter has done for the Hebrew Bible - though the Iliad is not as cryptic as that work.)
Though not embedded with the text, Hogan's book is an excellent guide to the Iliad providing a good background for the work, how it was "written" and the unique poetic tools of the Homer poet. This is a valuable resource for those wanting a deeper understanding the poem.
Hogan excellently sums up the unique spirit and beauty of Homer:
"The style is direct, circumstantial, explicit, concrete, in brief,realistic; put negatively, Homer is neither esoteric, private, nor subjective. Ambiguity and complex metaphor are not common features of this style, which aims for direct and complete description. The subject matter is ethical: the poet is interested in people , why they act as they do, the consequences of action, their thoughts and feelings in response to action. He lets the characters speak for themselves and does not include long passages reflecting on the significance of their speech and feeling. The characters are presented directly and vividly, unmediated by the mind of the poet. Homer may ramble, but he is not vague." (p. 39)
Though not embedded with the text, Hogan's book is an excellent guide to the Iliad providing a good background for the work, how it was "written" and the unique poetic tools of the Homer poet. This is a valuable resource for those wanting a deeper understanding the poem.
Hogan excellently sums up the unique spirit and beauty of Homer:
"The style is direct, circumstantial, explicit, concrete, in brief,realistic; put negatively, Homer is neither esoteric, private, nor subjective. Ambiguity and complex metaphor are not common features of this style, which aims for direct and complete description. The subject matter is ethical: the poet is interested in people , why they act as they do, the consequences of action, their thoughts and feelings in response to action. He lets the characters speak for themselves and does not include long passages reflecting on the significance of their speech and feeling. The characters are presented directly and vividly, unmediated by the mind of the poet. Homer may ramble, but he is not vague." (p. 39)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews