Books with title The Iliad

One of the New Yorker’s Favorite Books from 2011—from the renowned translator of Rilke, Tao Te Ching, and Gilgamesh, a vivid new translation of Western civilization’s foundational epic: the Iliad.One of The New Yorker’s Favorite Books of 2 011 Tolstoy called the Iliad a miracle; Goethe said that it always thrust him into a state of astonishment. Homer’s story is thrilling, and his Greek is perhaps the most beautiful poetry ever sung or written. But until now, even the best English translations haven’t been able to re-create the energy and simplicity, the speed, grace, and pulsing rhythm of the original. Now, thanks to the power of Stephen Mitchell’s language, the Iliad’s ancient story comes to moving, vivid new life, and we are carried along by a poetry that lifts even the most devastating human events into the realm of the beautiful. Mitchell’s Iliad is also the first translation based on the work of the preeminent Homeric scholar Martin L. West, whose edition of the original Greek identifies many passages that were added after the Iliad was first written down, to the detriment of the music and the story. Omitting these hundreds of interpolated lines restores a dramatically sharper, leaner text. In addition, Mitchell’s illuminating introduction opens the epic still further to our understanding and appreciation.

The Iliad in Classical Attic; sometimes referred to as the Song of Ilion or Song of Ilium) is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.

The Iliad is an epic Greek poem written by philosopher Homer, and is considered one of the oldest pieces of western literature still in existence. The story takes place during the last weeks of the ten year Trojan War, with a focus on the quarrels between King Agamemnon and the legendary warrior Achilles. However, this tale’s most famous scene is when the Greek’s give a gift to the Trojans of a large wooden horse, but one that is filled with soldiers, that allows the Greeks to infiltrate the high walls of the city of Troy. Many Scholars believe the Iliad was originally composed in an oral tradition, intended to be heard, not read, making this epic classic a must have for audiobook listeners!

How Agamemnon and Achilles fell out at the siege of Troy; and Achilles withdrew himself from battle, and won from Zeus a pledge that his wrong should be avenged on Agamemnon and the Achaians.CONTENTSINTRODUCTION.POPE'S PREFACE TO THE ILIAD OF HOMERBOOK I.-THE CONTENTION OF ACHILLES ANDAGAMEMNON.BOOK II.-THE TRIAL OF THE ARMY, AND CATALOGUE OF THE FORCES.BOOK III.-THE DUEL OF MENELAUS AND PARIS.BOOK IV.-THE BREACH OF THE TRUCE, AND THE FIRST BATTLE.BOOK V.-THE ACTS OF DIOMED.BOOK VI.-THE EPISODES OF GLAUCUS AND DIOMED, AND OF HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE.BOOK VII.-THE SINGLE COMBAT OF HECTOR AND AJAX.BOOK VIII.-THE SECOND BATTLE, AND THE DISTRESS OF THE GREEKS.BOOK IX.-THE EMBASSY TO ACHILLES.BOOK X.-THE NIGHT-ADVENTURE OF DIOMED AND ULYSSES.BOOK XI.-THE THIRD BATTLE, AND THE ACTS OF AGAMEMNON.BOOK XII.-THE BATTLE AT THE GRECIAN WALL.BOOK XIII.-THE FOURTH BATTLE CONTINUED, IN WHICH NEPTUNE ASSISTS THE GREEKS: THE ACTS OF IDOMENEUS.BOOK XIV.-JUNO DECEIVES JUPITER BY THE GIRDLE OF VENUS.BOOK XV.-THE FIFTH BATTLE AT THE SHIPS; AND THE ACTS OF AJAX.BOOK XVI.-THE SIXTH BATTLE, THE ACTS AND DEATH OF PATROCLUSBOOK XVII.-THE SEVENTH BATTLE, FOR THE BODY OF PATROCLUS.—THE ACTS OF MENELAUS.BOOK XVIII.-THE GRIEF OF ACHILLES, AND NEWARMOUR MADE HIM BY VULCAN.BOOK XIX.-THE RECONCILIATION OF ACHILLES AND AGAMEMNON.BOOK XX.-THE BATTLE OF THE GODS, AND THE ACTS OF ACHILLES.BOOK XXI.-THE BATTLE IN THE RIVER SCAMANDER.BOOK XXII.-THE DEATH OF HECTOR.BOOK XXIII.-FUNERAL GAMES IN HONOUR OF PATROCLUS.BOOK XXIV.-THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY OFHECTOR.CONCLUDING NOTE.Footnotes

Scepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as knowledge is of scepticism. To be content with what we at present know, is, for the most part, to shut our ears against conviction; since, from the very gradual character of our education, we must continually forget, and emancipate ourselves from, knowledge previously acquired; we must set aside old notions and embrace fresh ones; and, as we learn, we must be daily unlearning something which it has cost us no small labour and anxiety to acquire.And this difficulty attaches itself more closely to an age in which progress has gained a strong ascendency over prejudice, and in which persons and things are, day by day, finding their real level, in lieu of their conventional value. The same principles which have swept away traditional abuses, and which are making rapid havoc among the revenues of sinecurists, and stripping the thin, tawdry veil from attractive superstitions, are working as actively in literature as in society. The credulity of one writer, or the partiality of another, finds as powerful a touchstone and as wholesome a chastisement in the healthy scepticism of a temperate class of antagonists, as the dreams of conservatism, or the impostures of pluralist sinecures in the Church. History and tradition, whether of ancient or comparatively recent times, are subjected to very different handling from that which the indulgence or credulity of former ages could allow. Mere statements are jealously watched, and the motives of the writer form as important an ingredient in the analysis of his history, as the facts he records. Probability is a powerful and troublesome test; and it is by this troublesome standard that a large portion of historical evidence is sifted. Consistency is no less pertinacious and exacting in its demands. In brief, to write a history, we must know more than mere facts. Human nature, viewed under an induction of extended experience, is the best help to the criticism of human history. Historical characters can only be estimated by the standard which human experience, whether actual or traditionary, has furnished. To form correct views of individuals we must regard them as forming parts of a great whole—we must measure them by their relation to the mass of beings by whom they are surrounded, and, in contemplating the incidents in their[pg x] lives or condition which tradition has handed down to us, we must rather consider the general bearing of the whole narrative, than the respective probability of its details.

One of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer's Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode in the Trojan War. At its center is Achilles, the greatest warrior-champion of the Greeks, and his refusal to fight after being humiliated by his leader, Agamemnon. But when the Trojan Hector kills Achilles's close friend Patroclus, Achilles storms back into battle to take revenge-knowing full well that this will ensure his own early death. This tragic series of events is interwoven with powerfully moving descriptions of the ebb and flow of battle, of the domestic world inside Troy's besieged city of Ilium, and of the conflicts between the gods on Olympus as they argue over the fate of mortals. The Iliad is a work of extraordinary pathos and profundity that concerns itself with issues as fundamental as the meaning of life and death. Even the heroic ethic itself-with its emphasis on pride, honor, prowess in battle, and submission to the inexorable will of the gods-is not left unquestioned. This version of the Iliad is the translation by Alexander Pope.