The Iliad

Fellow customers: please note that the "jagged" deckled edges are intentional, not a defect! That info is tucked away toward the bottom of the product description, so that came as a surprise to me. I don't prefer deckled edges, but they're not a dealbreaker for me, and the quality of the paper itself actually feels very nice—better than most of the books I own. As usual, Amazon's handling was less gentle than ideal, and the cover edges got a little dinged up in transit. No significant damages, though. Now with that out of the way: this is my first time reading The Iliad (because I guess I've been living under a rock for all these years) and I am stunned by how truly excellent it is. For some background, I mainly read epic fantasy, but lately I have found a lot of my more recent reads to be lackluster—so I decided to go back to the original tales of gods, fantastical feats, thematic depth, and cultural significance. I started with Stephen Mitchell's translation since it was the only version available from my library, but it felt stilted and omitted a whole chunk of the original epic, so I switched to this translation (as per the Internet's as well as my husband's recommendation). Fagles' translation reads beautifully and I can't recommend it highly enough. The language is contemporary enough to be accessible and rich enough to maintain its sense of grandeur and awe. The Iliad is a thrilling, tragic, and at times darkly humorous cautionary tale of the cost of war and man's hubris. The reader feels the weight of the violence and the carelessness of men and gods; the ugly sides of the war and social dynamics aren't sugarcoated or watered down. It sits with you in a way that reminds you that these themes from millennia ago are still relevant today. Absolutely excellent, highly recommended.

There are probably at most a few hundred people in the world with the knowledge and competence to critique Robert Fagles' translation of the Iliad into English. First, one would have to be fluent in Greek and in particular the ancient dialects of Greek that Homer used to compose his poem. Since I am not in this exalted category of people I will have no comment on the translation. My interests lie more in the poem itself, its possible historicity, and other issues. Although I had read the Iliad long ago in college I had forgotten much. My recent foray to read it again had more to do with certain claims that Julian Jaynes made in his book "On the Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" which is an old classic of psychological literature from the 1970's. According to Jaynes the characters in the Iliad show no sign of modern consciousness but rather they are the playthings of the gods who issue commands which must be obeyed. Indeed, according to Jaynes' theory the gods are auditory hallucinations in people's heads and so we see Athena telling Achilles not to smite Agamemnon. After rereading the Iliad I don't find Jaynes' theory to be compelling. There are signs of human consciousness everywhere with both humans and gods judging and making decisions according to the best data they have available. So the characters seem to have an entirely modern consciousness as far as I can tell. Indeed, in Book 5 the Greek hero Diomedes attacks two of the gods in person (Aphrodite and Aries) and even wounds them. That certainly doesn't fit the bicameral mind theory. So putting Jaynes' theory aside, the next big issue is why it is the Trojan War which is the historical event that Homer chooses to write about. From the archaeological record we know that the greatest historical event between Troy being attacked and Homer was the Bronze Age collapse which resulted in the complete destruction of the Mycenaean civilization. So why is that not the theme of the poem? Why not an invasion of barbaric Sea Peoples attacking the Achaean defenders who valiantly fight to defend their cities in a losing cause against superior numbers? Perhaps that topic was too raw emotionally to deal with and so Homer chose a more remote war in which the Greeks were victorious. There may be an echo of the Bronze Age collapse when Hera says to Zeus that he can destroy the three cities she loves the most which are Mycenae, Argos, and Sparta. Perhaps Homer's audience knows that these cities have indeed been sacked. Or perhaps Troy itself becomes the poetical equivalent of the entire Bronze Age Greek civilization which is doomed to die. We can probably never know for sure why the Trojan War was picked as the topic. Another anomaly that the forward to the book points out is that the Iliad was likely first written down between 725 and 675 BCE not long after the Greeks adopted the alphabet from the Phoenicians. It is thus one of the first pieces of Greek literature to be written using the new writing system since Linear B had been long forgotten. We usually don't expect a masterpiece to be the first thing written, but rather several short stumbling efforts leading up to further sophistication and then the masterpiece. That is not the historical record of the Iliad. The masterpiece comes first with almost complete preservation and then we only have fragments of other Greek poems from the 7th century. So the history of Homer, the Iliad, and the Odyssey is indeed very peculiar and is not what we would expect from a Greece just recovering from a Dark Age lasting three centuries. Perhaps that is because of the genius of some individual named Homer or it has some other unknown cause, but we should rejoice that we have such an excellent and long piece of Greek literature from such an early age. There are still plenty of mysteries regarding the Iliad and its author. Each generation can find its own particular enjoyment in these poems. A few other comments are in order concerning historicity. Book 2 of the Iliad concerns the catalog of ships and how many came from various places in Achaea (Greece) and who their commanders were. So we see Agamemnon commanded 100 ships from Mycenae which was the biggest contingent. On the Trojan side it says that the allies of Troy speak a thousand different tongues and they come from all over Asia Minor. This matches the historical record of Asia Minor in the 13th century BCE which was dominated by the Hittite Empire in the center but with many satellite kingdoms surrounding it, each with its own language. There is some speculation that the language of Troy (called Wilusa by the Hittites) was Luwian, not Greek. And there would have been as much religious diversity as linguistic diversity although the poem does not show this. So the catalog of ships has always struck scholars as peculiar as a literary form unless it has some historical basis. It seems that most of the places listed in Achaea as sending ships were actual Bronze Age settlements so the catalog of ships may be historical. Also, strewn throughout the Iliad are hundreds of combat sequences which go like this. A, son of B whose father was C killed D, son of E whose father was F. And for the most part A, B, C, D, E, and F are never mentioned again in the poem. These numerous examples seem to have no purpose in furthering the plot. They seem to be filler material that could have been left out. So why include them? They seem to be very specific in terms of who killed whom and what genealogy each person had. Since this filler material does not advance the plot at all it would seem that the only reason this material is included is because it is historical or at least Homer thinks it is. Now, whether this material dates from the actual Trojan War of the mid 13th century BCE or from the later Iron Age is anyone's guess. My overall opinion is that the Iliad is probably much more historical than we generally think although events may have been moved in time to suit the poet's whimsy.

I have several points to make in this review. The first is to explain why I recommend the Fagles translation over that of Lombardo. The choice of translation is at one and the same time easy, personal and fraught with consequence. It is easy because all the translations that I am familiar with (Fitzgerald, Fagles and Lombardo) are excellent and have their own excellencies. It is personal because because I believe it is largely a matter of individual aesthetic. But it is fraught with consequence. Let me explain that last part. In Homeric Moments, Eva Braan points out the passage in Book 18 when Achilles first talks to Thetis after hearing that Patrocles has been killed by Hector. Fagles (p. 470, Line 96) translates the line as "I've lost him". Lombardo parses the line as "And I killed him" (Lombardo, p. 357, Line 86). Braan suggests that the alternate to lost should be "destroyed" (Braan, p. 11). This crux epitomizes my loss at not knowing Greek and having to read translations. I lose out on those moments, those flashes of shifting insight that knowing that the word I am reading can imply loss, guilt and transgression all at the same time. Knowing that there are trade-offs of insight to win or lose on the choice of a translation, I recommend you read several. Pick a main translation. And at the moments of consequence in the story, consult the others. Lombardo is flat out better at making Book 2(the catalogue of ships) not only readable but purposeful. Homer in that one chapter is giving all the islands, all the kingdoms and cities of Greece a place in the national epic of the country. He is giving everyone in Greece a hero to look back on as their own. But in general I find Lombardo to be, for lack of a better term, coarser. And, I think it has a lot to do with his methodology. I read his intro as saying that he works his translation out over the coarse of time by performing it (fair enough since we are reading Homer, the singer of epics). But, as a result of those readings perhaps, his translation has passages that are real clunkers. For example, I laughed out loud when I read this: "Well let me tell you something. I guarantee That if I ever catch you running on at the mouth again As you were just now, my name isn't Odysseus..." (Lombardo, p.28, Line 279-281) I read those line and what I see is young Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones not Odysseus. Compare Fagles: "I tell you this, so help me it's the truth: If I catch you again, blithering on this way, let Odysseus' head be wrenched off his shoulders" (Fagles, p. 108, Line 301-303). That line count is also an issue- Lombardo's methodology leads him to leave out words, phrases and lines because they are unneccessary to performance. I can't go with that. I could go on but I think you see my argument. To sum up: I don't read/speak a bit of Greek. My ear when reading aloud leads me to prefer the Fagles translation but the Lombardo is a valuable adjunct to that reading. Since both translations are also interpretations, to read them both is to probably get a little closer to Homer. And, by the way, both contain useful introductions although I think Knox's intro to Fagles' translation is better than Murnaghan's to Lombardo's translation. Finally, why should you care? I have hinted at it in my review title and my remark on the catalogue of ships. Homer's poetic style reveals so much more than an epic on force or whatever the critical summation de jour is. He creates a world. Not just a world at war but through his similes a world of crafts, work, weddings, births, murders, kinships, friendships, of gods, of monsters, of countries and of history. Toward the end of the book, the God Hephaestus creates for Achilles a new shield. Homer describes in detail the working on the shield, the two cities, one at war, one at peace and the whole universe that surrounds them. It is the perfect simile for the effect of Homer's poem as a whole. The other reason you should read this book is the central conflict between Hector and Achilles. Both men are doomed and know it. Both are aware that the success of their side is dependent on them. Achilles is the more god-like but Hector is the better man, the more humane human being. You should care about reading about these two because in their conflict, they are tracing out what is was for the men of ancient Greece to live and to die. And their story continues to carry the weight of the ways that they faced their fate down to our own time. Which brings me to my final reason for preferring Fagles over Lombardo. Brando in The Wild Ones was a marvel. There is nothing wrong at all with Brando from The Wild Ones. Brando from On the Waterfront was even better. But Brando is not Hector, he is not Achilles, he is not Odysseus or Diomedes or Great Ajax. To my ears, all too often Lombardo give us Brando. Fagles gives us the Greeks. At least, to my ears and my soul. Try the two of them out and let me know how you feel. And if anyone wants to argue the merits of different translations in the comments, have at me.

Like many people raised in the West, I was assigned the Iliad a few times in school and university. And like many people raised in the West, I never actually read it. The thought of reading a 16,000 line, 3,000 year old poem was intimidating and not particularly attractive. How wrong I was. This translation is beautiful, touching, funny, and action-packed. It sounds incredible to say I was on the edge of my seat during scenes, and yet I was. The story itself is very well-known, so I leave just a few of my favorite passages: Book 6, verses 171 - 175: "Like the generation of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away." Book 6, verses 247 - 249: "Always be the best, my boy, the bravest, and hold your head up high above the others. Never disgrace the generation of your fathers." Book 6, verses 581 - 584: "No man will hurl me down to Death, against my fate. And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it, neither brave man nor coward, I tell you-- it's born with us the day that we are born." Book 7, verses 488 - 499 "Just as the sun began to strike the lowlands, rising out of the deep calm flow of the Ocean River to climb the vaulting sky, the opposing armies met. And hard as it was to recognize each man, each body, with clear water they washed the clotted blood away and lifted them into wagons, weeping warm tears. Priam forbade his people to wail aloud. In silence they piled the corpses on the pyre, their hearts breaking, burned them down to ash and returned to sacred Troy. And just so on the other side Achaean men-at-arms piled the corpses on the pyre, their hearts breaking, burned them down to ash and returned to the hollow ships." Book 23, verse 116 "Take some joy in the tears that numb the heart!" Book 24, verse 57: "The Fates have given mortals hearts that can endure."

Homer’s Iliad is more than a story of war—it is a meditation on honor, fate, and the human soul caught between glory and mortality. I first read Fagles’ translation, which swept me away with its energy and poetry, but over the years I’ve returned to Lattimore for his precise diction and close fidelity to the Greek. Achilles’ rage, Hector’s courage, and the interventions of the gods are not just narrative flourishes—they are the moral and spiritual architecture of a civilization wrestling with virtue, duty, and divine order. The cultural significance of the Iliad cannot be overstated. It is the foundation of Western literature, shaping ideas of heroism, human responsibility, and the cost of pride. Homer’s gods and their interventions echo the moral universe that faith would later articulate more fully: the consequences of sin, the weight of choice, and the tragic cost of ignoring higher truths. Reading it has shaped the way I think about human nature, authority, and moral courage, and it has guided the decisions I make in raising my family, cultivating virtue over convenience, and honoring the truths handed down through the classics and the Church alike. Whether through Fagles’ lyric sweep or Lattimore’s careful rigor, the Iliad remains a text that demands reflection, discipline, and a readiness to confront the consequences of one’s passions—a reminder that civilization, faith, and character are forged in the crucible of choice and action.

I am giving this 5 stars based on this translation being the way to go if you are interested in reading this book at all. The book itself is not for everyone, but if you want to tackle something different this provides that opportunity.

It is very easy to Read and the Intro can get pretty deep in beginning..Notes are not overwhelming,I wish it had More..If ever tried to read an earlier translation that bogged you down,this is English..

My daughter loves it

I love the Penguin Deluxe editions! Bought it for a reread since it's been a few years. Highly recommend the Robert Fagles translation.

Amazing book, arrived in perfect condition.

A very beautiful cover! The slightly torn page edges really add to it as well

A pleasure to look at and hold, an absolute delight to read. A treasure to pass down to future generations.

El libro es un clásico, nada que argumentar ahí. La edición se ve bella. El problema es que cómo usualmente pasa con libros grandes y Amazon, este termina por llegar dañado. Haré la devolución pero me molesta la falta de cuidado, hubo una época en que no sucedía esto.