The Iliad

Homer, W. H. D. Rouse, Seth L. Schein

Book cover for The Iliad
Book cover for The Iliad
Book cover for The Iliad
Book cover for The Iliad
Book cover for The Iliad
Book cover for The Iliad
Book cover for The Iliad
Book cover for The Iliad
Book cover for The Iliad
Book cover for The Iliad
Book cover for The Iliad
Book cover for The Iliad

The Iliad

The Iliad

Homer, W. H. D. Rouse, Seth L. Schein

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Description

When Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey appeared in 2017--revealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that was "fresh, unpretentious and lean" (Madeline Miller, Washington Post)--critics lauded it as "a revelation" (Susan Chira, New York Times) and "a cultural landmark" (Charlotte Higgins, Guardian) that would forever change how Homer is read in English. Now Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of Homer's other great epic--the most revered war poem of all time.

The Iliad roars with the clamor of arms, the bellowing boasts of victors, the fury and grief of loss, and the anguished cries of dying men. It sings, too, of the sublime magnitude of the world--the fierce beauty of nature and the gods' grand schemes beyond the ken of mortals. In Wilson's hands, this thrilling, magical, and often horrifying tale now gallops at a pace befitting its legendary battle scenes, in crisp but resonant language that evokes the poem's deep pathos and reveals palpably real, even "complicated," characters--both human and divine.

The culmination of a decade of intense engagement with antiquity's most surpassingly beautiful and emotionally complex poetry, Wilson's Iliad now gives us a complete Homer for our generation.

About the Author

Seth L. Schein is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Davis. He works mainly on Homeric epic, Attic tragedy, and receptions of classical literature and culture. His books include The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer's Iliad, Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays [editor], and the translation of Sophokles: Philoktetes.

Critical Reviews

"A great poem cannot be fully translated unless by a poet almost as great as its original author...W.H.D. Rouse...retells the story in fast, modern, colloquial prose. It is the first version I have ever seen which drives on as rapidly as the original and therefore it makes an excellent introduction to Homer. This is the translation to read first, if you have never read The Iliad."--The New York Times Book Review

Publishing Information

Publisher: Signet Book
Pub date: 2015-12-01
Length: 416 pages

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