Many translators
have tried their hand at rendering Iliad (or The Iliad, as the title is also sometimes translated) into English. At any moment, you can be certain that someone has decided that readers need a new version
of this poem, one of the foundational texts of western culture.
Indeed, the translation you are reading and another famous one (by
Robert Fagles) came out within the same decade, and more than a dozen translations have appeared since 2000. Stanley Lombardo’s
Preface explains some of the choices he has made in his translation.
What challenges do you think a translator faces when translating a
great work of literature? What is the most challenging aspect
of translation? What should a translator’s priority be
when choosing between different ways of translating a line?
Consider the
conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles. What is its source?
What motivates each man? What are their virtues and flaws?
With whom do your sympathies lie, and why?
One of the most acclaimed elements of The Iliad is the Homeric simile. As you may know, a simile is a form of figurative language in which something is overtly compared to something else to which it has no literal connection. For example, “Jacqueline’s mother stood in the doorway as if she were Cerberus guarding the gates of Hades” and “The house was decrepit, with paint peeling off the sides like skin five days after a sunburn” are both similes, but neither “Jacqueline looks like her mother, but with more piercings” nor “The house was decrepit, as its owners had not performed any maintenance on it for a decade” qualifies as one because both are literal, not figurative. A simile is overt because it announces it is a comparison with a word such as like or as (these are not the only possibilities). Lombardo considers the Homeric similes important enough that he sets them off typographically by inserting space before and after them and putting them in italics. What role do the similes play in the narrative? What kinds of things does Homer like to compare? Why do you think Homer used them?
I admit that
the section of Book 2 people call the list of ships goes on . . .
and on . . . and on. But you will find later that it will have
been useful. Why is it here? What function does it serve
for the audience? Remember that Iliad was originally
a work of performance art, not a text.
The Iliad concerns talking as much as fighting, and in this
work the way a character speaks says as much about him as the way
he hurls a spear. Major decisions occur because of a character’s
skill at rhetoric, the ability to persuade others to an opinion or
action. Find one speech in which we see this skill demonstrated
and explain what makes it effective.