One of the oldest extant works of Western literature, the Iliad is a timeless epic poem of great warriors trapped between their own heroic pride and the arbitrary, often vicious decisions of fate and the gods. Renowned scholar and acclaimed translator Peter Green captures the Iliad in all its surging thunder for a new generation of readers.
Featuring an enticingly personal introduction, a detailed synopsis of each book, a wide-ranging glossary, and explanatory notes for the few puzzling in-text items, the book also includes a select bibliography for those who want to learn more about Homer and the Greek epic. This landmark translation—specifically designed, like the oral original, to be read aloud—will soon be required reading for every student of Greek antiquity, and the great traditions of history and literature to which it gave birth.
Peter Green is Dougherty Centennial Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin and Adjunct Professor of Classics at the University of Iowa. He is the author of both historical studies and translations of poetry, including The Poems of Catullus and Apollonios’s The Argonautika, both by UC Press.
“Intended for a Greekless readership, veteran translator Peter Green's brilliant new version of the Iliad does full justice to the extraordinary genius of Homer's epic tragedy, not only capturing the original's pristine force but also skillfully controlling the rhythm, idiom, and rhetoric of the master poet's hexameter verses.”—Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Clare College, Cambridge University
“It is not easy to stake out new ground with an Iliad translation, but Peter Green has done so magnificently. Reading—or, much better, hearing—this translation must be as close as one can get in English to the original Greek experience, and Green's sensitivity to the rhythms, word-order, and stylistic register of the original is truly impressive. The excitement and horror of the battle scenes are caught as vividly as the love and sadness in the parting of Hector and Andromache, and there is a brilliant and wide-ranging introduction too. A lifetime of experience as critic and translator has gone into this, and it shows.”—Christopher Pelling, Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford University
“A compelling translation of the Iliad, written with great verve, and 'naturally declaimable' in English, as Peter Green intended. His concern for first-time readers makes the story, its rhetoric, and its poetic power vividly accessible.”—Pat Easterling, Emeritus Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge University
"What an achievement! This new translation of the Iliad by Peter Green is a fitting culmination to a lifetime of scholarship. The introduction alone stands as a contribution to the field, but it is the magnificence of the translation itself that will captivate the reader, bringing Homer to life once again. It is a sheer delight to read; I can only imagine the thrill that will be felt by those reading or hearing the verses, whether for the very first time or the millionth time…."—Eric H. Cline, Professor of Classics and Anthropology and the Director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at George Washington University
608 pp.6 x 9
9780520281417$29.95|£25.00Hardcover
May 2015