Iliad (Hackett Classics) - Hardcover

Homer; Murnaghan, Sheila

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0872203530 ISBN 13: 9780872203532

Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1997

Synopsis

"Gripping. . . . Lombardo's achievement is all the more striking when you consider the difficulties of his task. . . . [He] 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 disarmingly hardbitten reworking of a great classic."
—Daniel Mendelsohn, The New York Times Book Review

About this title

About the Author

Stanley Lombardo is Professor of Classics, University of Kansas.

Reviews

With the publication of Robert Fagels's impressive translation of the Odyssey (Viking Penguin, 1996, pap.) and now this equally impressive translation of the Iliad by Lombardo, this year seems to blazon something of a Homeric renaissance. Lombardo concedes from the start that "Homer's musicality cannot be heard in any kind of English," and so he does not compose his Iliad in hexameters or, for that matter, in any standard, regular meter. Instead, based on his experience as an oral performer of Homer's poetry, he writes the lines "based on the cadences of natural speech." The result is a Homer that "is brought to life" for the modern reader with no loss of original integrity?the achievement of a scholar, translator, and performer. Accessible and readable as Lombardo's translation is, it is rendered even more so by the superb, comprehensive introduction by Sheila Murnaghan, which provides a rich but lucid discussion of the classical context of the epic. A helpful appendix provides thumbnail sketches of the major characters, a catalog of combat deaths, and an "Index of Speeches." This handsome, superbly done Iliad will be read and enjoyed by everyone. Highly recommended for all libraries.?Thomas F. Merrill, formerly with Univ. of Delaware
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0872203530
• ISBN 13: 9780872203532
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 576