The Iliad by Homer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars "There is no saving the sons of all mankind" It's the tenth year of the siege of Troy by the united Greek armies against the Trojans and their allies because the Trojan prince Paris spirited away the not unwilling Helen from her husband, the Spartan king Menelaus. Apollo has visited a plague upon the Greek army because its leader Agamemnon enslaved the daughter of the god's priest. And when the Greek uberhero Achilles tells Agamemnon to return the girl to placate Apollo, festering resentments burst open. Agamemnon declares that he'll take Achilles' prize-girl in compensation, provoking the hero to unsheathe his sword with murderous intent. Athena then pulls Achilles' hair and tells him just to threaten Agamemnon ("Sack of wine, you with your cur's eyes and your antelope heart!") and wait for payback. Thus Achilles withdraws himself and his Myrmidons from the Greek army to make the Greeks miss him when facing the Trojans and their hero Hector. The Iliad then depicts the consequences of Achilles' anger. There is much carnage: bodies gaffed, skulls skewered, brains burst, teeth shattered, tongues severed, livers pierced, bowels uncoiled, tendons split, knees buckled, etc. Much vaunting over fallen foes and stripping them of their armor. Much reversal in morale and momentum as the gods inspire or aid one side or the other. No mercy: suppliants clasping the knees of their captors get their heads cut off. But in addition to the horror, tragedy, and waste of war, Homer also evokes its appeal: "Take a fresh grip on courage! Fight like men!" The poem is surprisingly funny, as when old Nestor rambles on about his youthful feats (when men were great!), the gods bicker, scheme, and kibitz, or Achilles insults Agamemnon or Hector Paris. There are many memorable scenes, like Hector saying goodbye to Andromache and their baby boy; Greek Diomedes and Trojan ally Glaucus discovering that their grandfathers were friends; Hera seducing Zeus; Hephaestus crafting a shield for Achilles with all of human life animated on it; Achilles chasing Hector around Troy and Hector charging Achilles; Achilles trying to embrace the shade of Patroclus; Priam and Achilles weeping together over lost fathers, sons, and friends. . . Every time one reads The Iliad, it excites, shocks, moves, and pleases. Why? Despite telling the story as a Greek, Homer avoids jingoistic posturing and enters the minds and hearts of Greeks and Trojans. He names the many who die on both sides. (The myriad names of winners and losers and their parents and homes accumulate into a critical mass of human endeavor and loss). He spends at least as much time with Trojans mourning Hector as with Greeks mourning Patroclus. He depicts everyone--even his gods and especially his heroes--as flawed, believable human beings. Achilles does become monstrous in his near-divine, mad butchery, damming a river with Trojan corpses and saying to the dying Hector, "Would god my passion drove me to slaughter you and eat you raw." (Hector's reply is sublime: "I see you now for what you are.") Achilles has chosen martial fame over a long life, and his violence and anger are excessive and terrifying rather than meet and inspiring, while Hector is a whole man, a reluctant hero fighting for his city, people, and family. No wonder Hector is a much more popular given name in the world than Achilles! And despite being a war poem, The Iliad is a paean to life. Yes, the characters host guests, perform sacrifices, interpret omens, conduct funeral games, and so on, but what really evokes life in all its forms are Homer's wonderfully detailed, extended epic similes comparing the heroes and their deeds to shipwrights, fishermen, shepherds, farmers, tanners, potters, dancers, boys, and women in labor; horses, heifers, oxen, deer, dogs, wolves, and lions; cicadas, bees, and flies; fires, snowflakes, storms, and squalls. Like this: Think of an honest cottage spinner balancing weight In one pan of the scales and wool yarn on the other, Trying to earn a pittance for her children. Even so poised as that were these great powers making war. Fitzgerald's 1974 blank verse translation read by Dan Stevens is beautiful, lean, and dynamic. Fitzgerald likes simple words and compound words and names with Greek rather than Latin spelling (e.g., Akhilleus not Achilles). I think his translation is tighter than Lattimore's and Fagles'. I like all three: And that was how that battle went--a din of ironhearted men through barren air rose to the sky, all brazen. (Fitzgerald) And so they fought and the iron din went rising up to the bronze sky through the barren breathless air. (Fagles) So they fought on, and the iron tumult went up into the brazen sky through the barren bright air. (Lattimore) As for the audiobooks of those translations, I much prefer Dan Stevens reading Fitzgerald to Charlton Griffon reading Lattimore and Derek Jacobi Fagles. Griffin's rolling delivery makes all his audiobooks sound alike, and his female voices are too high and nasal. He does read an interesting 90-minute introduction by Herbert J. Muller and introduces the books of the epic with cool 'Greek' music. Jacobi is a great actor, but he tends to overact when reading The Iliad by, for instance, stretching long vowels, and his audiobook is an abridgement. Though Stevens speeds up in the heat of the moment, he reads with perfect clarity, intelligence, and passion. His audiobook has no introduction, but after the poem a professor reads a section of The Iliad in the exotic original Greek. The Iliad depicts a roughly 3000-year-old warrior culture based on men winning glory by fighting other men and stealing their possessions and enslaving their women, all while placating the touchy gods, though one can never avoid one's long ago decided fate. But the people in The Iliad are just like us--full of love, hate, joy, fear, and creative and destructive energy--and at times forget fate and gods: "Safety lies in our own hands!" View all my reviews
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Jefferson Peters
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