Homer's Iliad
A new translation in English Verse
translated by
Sophie Grace Chappell

[Sample taken from the opening of Book 1]

Tell, goddess, of Achilles' fatal rage,
rage that brought the Greeks ten thousand griefs;
Hades glutted with ghosts of strong young heroes;
the heroes themselves left carrion for the dogs
and every bird of heaven; by Zeus' will.                                             5

Tell it from when Agamemnon, king of men,
first fell to quarrelling with bright Achilles.
Which was it of the gods set them at feud?

Apollo, son of Zeus. For, angered with the king,
he raised foul plague in the troops, and soldiers died,                      10
when Agamemnon shamed Chryses, his priest.

Chryses had come among the swift ships of the Greeks
with lavish ransom to redeem his daughter.
He held in his hands the bands of far-archer Apollo
upon his golden sceptre; and besought                                             15
the whole Greek host, but most the Atreids:

"Atreus' sons--all you Greeks in your fine armour--
may all the gods who dwell in Olympus's halls
grant you the rape of Troy and safe sail safe home!
But set free my sweet daughter. Take these ransoms.                       20
Take them and please Zeus' son, far-archer Apollo."

And all the other Greeks held it as piety
to reverence the priest and take the ransom.
But he pleaded not to Agamemnon's liking,
who shamed and dismissed him with these brutal words:              25

"Don't let me, old fool, catch you near our ships.
Don't stick around here now. Don't come back either;
that voodoo-tat you clutch might not protect you.
For I will not release her. She'll grow old
far from her homeland, creature of my harem,                                 30
plying her loom and sharing my bed in Argos.
So keep safe; go away, and don't annoy me."

So he spoke, and the scared old man obeyed,
dragged his slow steps along the shore of the echoing sea.
And as the old man trudged his prayers went up                             35
to Lord Apollo, son of fair-haired Leto:

"Hear me, lord of the silver bowl! Hear me, you
who haunt holy Killa and Chryse! Hear me, you
who rule in mighty power in Tenedos!
You plague-averting lord! If ever I                                                      40
built any temple you delighted in,
if ever I laid burning flesh on your altar
of bulls and goats--if so then hear my prayer:
Make the Greeks pay for this. Smite them through thin air."

REVIEW COMMENT

Sophie Grace Chappell's "new translation in English verse," a project not yet complete but available, in installments, free of charge on the web, is probably the most colloquial and breezy recent translation of Homer's war epic. The rhythm and diction establish a rapid pace and make the poem immediately accessible to readers with no previous familiarity with Homer. The translator also provides  footnotes which such readers will find helpful. All in all, this is a translation one could well recommend to first-time readers of the Iliad.

Chappell makes no attempt to stay in very close line-by-line contact with Homer's text, and her word choices are at times questionable ("voodoo-tat," "plague-averting")--characteristics which will annoy the scholar-critics, but this translation is a welcome reminder that the tradition of Homeric translations has room for more free-wheeling and more easly accessible English verse than our modern fashion usually permits.

For access to Chappell's translation, please use the following link: Chappell Iliad

List of Published English Translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey