The Iliad
A New Translation by Caroline Alexander
HarperCollins 2015

 

 

 1  ILIÁDOS A

 

Wrath—sing, goddess, of the ruinous wrath of Peleus’ son Achilles,
that inflicted woes without number upon the Achaeans,
hurled forth to Hades many strong souls of warriors
and rendered their bodies prey for the dogs,
for all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished;
sing from when they two first stood in conflict—
Atreus’ son, lord or men, and godlike Achilles

              Which of the gods, then, set these two together in conflict, to fight?
Apollo, son of Leto and Zeus; who in his rage at the king
raised a virulent plague through the army; the men were dying                      10
because the son of Atreus dishonored the priest Chryses.
For he came to the Achaeans’ swift ships
bearing countless gifts to ransom his daughter,
holding in his hands on a golden staff the wreaths of Apollo
who strikes from afar, and beseeched all the Achaeans—

                 “Sons of Atreus and you other strong-greaved Achaeans,
may the gods who have homes on Olympus grant you
to plunder the city of Priam, and reach your home safely;
release to me my beloved daughter, take instead the ransom,                         20
revering Zeus’ son who strikes from afar—Apollo.”

                 Then the rest of the Achaeans all shouted assent,
to respect the priest and accept the splendid random;
but this did not please the heart of Atreus’ son Agamemnon,
and violently he sent him away and laid a powerful warning upon him:
“Let me not find you, old man, near our hollow ships,
either loitering now or coming  again later,
lest the god’s staff and wreath not protect you.
The girl I will not release; sooner will old age come upon her
in our house, in Argos, far from her homeland,                                                 30
pacing back and forth by the loom and sharing my bed.
So go, do not make me angry, and you will return the safer.”

                 Thus he spoke; and old man was afraid and obeyed his word,
and he went in silence along the shore of the tumultuous sea.
And going aside, the old man fervently prayed
to lord Apollo, whom lovely-haired Leto bore:
“Hear me, God of the silver bow, you who stand over Chryse
and Killa most holy, you whose might rules Tenedos,
God  of Plague; if ever I roofed over a temple that pleased you,
or if ever I burned as sacrifice to you the fatty thighbones                               40
of bulls and of goats—grant me this wish:
May the Danaans pay for my tears with your arrows.”

                 Thus he prayed, and Phoebus Apollo heard him,
and set out from the heights of Olympus, rage in his heart,
with his bow on his shoulders and hooded quiver;
the arrows clattered on his shoulders as he raged,
as the god himself moved; and he came like the night.
Then far from the ships he crouched, and let loose and arrow—
and terrible was the ring of his silver bow.
First he went after the mules and sleek dogs,                                                     50
but then, letting fly a sharp arrow, he struck at the men themselves,
and the crowded pyres of the dead burned without ceasing.

 

 

Review Comment

 

Caroline Alexander, the first woman to be listed on these pages, sets out “to render a line-by-line translation as far as English grammar allows; [the] translation, therefore, has the same number of lines as the Greek text and generally accords with the Greek lineation.” Alexander takes particular care to stay close to the Greek text—her sense of the Greek is sensitive and precise—and achieves her desire to adhere to the Greek lineation by expanding or contracting the lines at will (anywhere from fewer  than ten syllables to more than twenty for no apparent poetic reason other than to stick to her stated intentions of matching Homer’s lineation), a style I find quite irritating. I miss the compression and momentum of an exciting and dramatic and often passionate traditional epic. The diction and sentence structure are generally clear but otherwise unremarkable. Based on the selections I have read, I suspect reactions to the translation will depend a great deal on the extent to which people are prepared to accept what often reads as rather loose and (at times) inert English free verse.

 

Read more of the Amazon selection here: Alexander Iliad

Review by A. E. Stallings (Spectator)

 

 

[List of Published English Translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey]