The Iliad of Homer
Literally Translated With Explanatory Notes
by Theodore Alois Buckley
London 1851
[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]
THE ILIAD OF HOMER,
BOOK
THE FIRST.
ARGUMENT.
Apollo,
enraged at the insult offered to his priest, Chryses,
lends a pestilence upon
the Greeks. A council is called, and Agamemnon, being compelled to restore the daughter of Chryses, whom he had taken from him, in revenge deprives Achilles of Hippodameia. Achilles resigns her, but refuses to aid the Greeks in battle,
and at his request, his mother,
Thetis, petitions Jove to honour her offended son at the expense of the Greeks. Jupiter, despite the
opposition of Juno, grants her request.
SING, O goddess, the destructive wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus, which brought
countless woes upon the Greeks, and hurled many valiant
souls of heroes down to Hades, and made themselves a prey to dogs and to all
birds [but the will of Jove was being accomplished], from the time when Atrides, king of men, and noble
Achilles, first contending, were disunited. Which, then, of the
gods engaged these two in strife, so that they should fight?
The son of Latona and Jove; for he, enraged with the
king, stirred up an evil pestilence through the army [and
the people kept perishing]; because the son of Atreus had
dishonoured the priest Chryses : for he came to the swift ships of the Greeks to ransom his
daughter, and bringing invaluable ransoms, having in his hands the fillets of far-darting
Apollo on his golden sceptre. And he supplicated all the
Greeks, but chiefly the two sons of Atreus, the leaders of the
people:
“Ye sons of
Atreus, and ye other well-greaved Greeks, to you indeed
may the gods, possessing the heavenly dwellings, grant to
destroy the city of Priam, and to return home safely : but for me,
liberate my beloved daughter, and accept the ransoms,
reverencing the son of Jove, far-darting Apollo.”
Upon this,
all the other Greeks shouted assent, that the priest
should be reverenced, and the splendid ransoms accepted; yet was it
not pleasing in his mind to Agamemnon, son of
Atreus; but he dismissed Tiim evilly, and added a harshmandate:
“Let me not
find thee, old man, at the hollow barks, either now
loitering, or hereafter returning, lest the staff and fillet
of the god avail thee not. For her I will not set free;
sooner shall old age come upon her, at home in Argos, far
away from her native land, employed in offices of the
loom, and preparing my bed. But away! irritate me not,
that thou mayest return the safer.”
Thus he spoke ; but the old man was afraid, and obeyed the
command. And he went in silence along the shore of the
loud-resounding sea; but then, going apart, the aged man prayed
much to king Apollo, whom fair-haired Latona bore:
“Hear me,
god of the silver bow, who art wont to protect Chrysa
and divine Cilla, and who mightily rulest over
Tenedos : O Sminthius, if ever I have roofed thy
graceful temple, or if,
moreover, at any time I have burned to thee the fat thighs of bulls
or of goats, accomplish this entreaty for me. Let the
Greeks pay for my tears, by thy arrows.”
Thus he
spoke praying ; but to him Phoebus Apollo hearkened.
And he descended from the summits of Olympus, enraged in
heart, having upon his shoulders his bow and quiver
covered on all sides. But as he moved, the shafts
rattled forthwith upon the shoulders of him enraged; but he went
along like unto the night. Then he sat down apart from
the ships, and sent among them an arrow, and terrible
arose the clang of the silver bow. First he attacked the mules,
and the swift dogs; but afterwards despatching a pointed
arrow against [the Greeks] themselves, he smote them, and frequent
funeral-piles of the dead were continually burning.
Buckley’s translation, which
is accurate enough, has nothing particular to recommend it to the modern reader
from the point of view of his English style. The copious scholarly notes
at the foot of each page are, however, of some interest to the reader of Greek. Providing
these notes appears to be one important reason why Buckley undertook the
translation in the first place, since he is apologetic in the preface that he
could not provide more.
Some contemporary reviewers welcomed
Buckley “literal” translation of Homer:
Mr. Buckley has done good service to
literature by the production of this volume. Not being harnessed to blank
verse, he has succeeded in a translation of the Iliad which presents more of
the force and spirit of Homer’s matchless work than either Chapman’s, Pope’s,
or Cowper’s renderings. The work is based upon a careful examination of
whatever has been contributed by scholars of every age toward the elucidation
of the text. This will undoubtedly become the most popular translation of the
Iliad. (Merchants’ Magazine and
Commercial Review, Volume 34 (1856)
Those who wish to access the full text of
Buckley translation should use the following link: Buckley Iliad.
[List
of Printed English Translations of Homer’s Iliad
and Odyssey]