Iliad of Homer
Translated into English Verse
by W. G. Caldcleugh
Philadelphia 1870
[Sample
from the Opening of the Poem]
THE ILIAD OF HOMER
BOOK I
THE QUARREL OF THE CHIEFS
ARGUMENT
The Greeks are encamped on
the shore in front of Troy.—A pestilence breaks out in the
army.—Achilles calls a council, at which Chalcas, the prophet, declares the cause
of it to be the refusal of Agamemnon to ransom the captive maid whom
he had taken in battle, and whose release had been begged by
her father Chryses, priest of Apollo.—The king finally restores her,
and indemnifies himself by seizing Briseis, another captive female who
belonged to Achilles.—Achilles, in great wrath for this insult,
withdraws from the war, and prays his mother, the sea-goddess Thetis, to go to
Olympus and beg Jupiter to take part with the Trojans, and bring
defeat on the Greeks.
SING of
Achilles’ wrath, oh heavenly muse,
Which
brought upon the Greeks unnumbered woes,
And
sent so many heroes to their doom;
Whose
bodies, strewed unburied o’er the plain,
Became
the prey of vultures and of dogs:
So
Jove decreed, when first a quarrel rose
Betwixt
the godlike warrior Achilles
And
Agamemnon, sovereign of men.
Who of the
gods the quarrel set afoot?
Apollo
’twas; he, angry with the king,
Sent
through the camp a plague; the people died,—
For
Agamemnon insulted Chryses,
Apollo’s
priest; he to the Greeks had come
With
costly gifts, his daughter to redeem,
And
bearing in his hand the golden wand
And
flowery garlands of his patron god,
He supplicated
all the Greeks, but most
The
two commanders, sons of Atreus.
Hear me, ye
sons of Atreus, and ye Greeks:
May
the gods dwelling on the Olympian mount
Grant
all you wish; may Priam’s city fall,
And
ye in safety to your homes return;
But,
oh, restore to me my darling child,
Receive
my gifts, and reverence my god.
Then
shouted all the Greeks their full consent
The priest to
honor, and accept his gifts.
But
Agamemnon was much displeased,
Roughly
dismissed him, and thus harshly spake:
Let
me not find thee in the camp, old man,
Long
loitering; nor hither come again,
Lest e’en thy garlands and thy rod divine
Protect
thee not; as for thy daughter, I
Will
not restore her till her charms decay.
But
to my home in Argos shall she go,
Far
from her native land, sharing my bed,
And laboring
at the loom. Begone, I say,
Whilst safely
thou canst go. Thus spake the king.
The
old man, trembling, heard him and obeyed.
Silent
he went, retiring from the camp,
Along
the margin of the roaring sea;
Then
to Apollo, all alone he prayed:
Hear
me, Apollo, god of the silver bow,
Ruling
o’er Chrysa, Teuedos, and
Cilia,
If e’er with garlands I have crowned thy shrine,
Or
offered up the fat of bulls and goats,
Grant
this my prayer: may thy avenging darts
Upon
the Greeks be sent for these my tears.
Thus Chryses prayed, nor was his prayer unheard,
For
full of wrath, down from the Olympian mount,
Apollo
came; upon his shoulders hung
His
splendid quiver and his costly bow;
The
angry arrows rattled as he trod;
Like
night he came, so terrible his frown.
Outside
the camp he took his seat, and shot:
His
silver bow twanged horribly; first fell
The mules, the
dogs died next, then on the men
The
deadly arrow of the god descended.
Caldcleugh’s preface is nothing if not modest: “The
following translation, the desultory occupation of a few years,
is submitted to the public with much diffidence. Written
principally for the amusement of the translator and his
friends, he makes no claim to the qualifications necessary
for the success of such an undertaking ; yet, perhaps,
some of the admirers of Homer may honor the work with a
perusal, if only to see in what light any new version may
place their favorite author.” The
result is an entertaining and energetic blank verse rendition, far superior to
many of the efforts of the Victorian English tradition of translating the Iliad. Caldcleugh’s verse is a reminder that in
many things directness and clarity trump odd scholarly experiments (of
which we may say, with Dr. Johnson, that no precedents justify absurdity).
Those who wish to access the
complete text of Caldcleugh’s translation should use
the following link: Caldcleugh
Iliad
[List of Published English Translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey]
.