The Iliad

“You startle me! You always have your notions!

(in the manner of Francis Newman’s wonderfully unreadable and peculiar translation)

There is nothing like The Iliad. No translator, including me, can fully replicate all the poetic, dramatic, and emotional effects of the Greek. No translation can be simply “the same” as the original. A translator who underestimates her task will produce a clunky, incoherent mess.

I tried to avoid colloquial or slangy phrases, which will date quickly and detract from the partially elevated tone of the poem.

Ideally, literary translators should not grind the beef, pork, and lamb of their originals into an unidentifiable hot dog. Instead,

packed. I have often felt like the poor mortal horse, Jumper, harnessed alongside the immortal horses of Achilles: like him, I struggled to keep up, always knowing that the original poem, my model and constant companion, would always gallop ahead.

The others on Olympus will not help you when I lay overpowering hands upon you.”

The use of both variants can provide energy and variety of pacing within a regular rhythm; iambic verse without any first-foot inversions or falling final syllables risks sounding too trit-trot, too monotonous.

rage against the Greeks,