The Iliad

Translated by Alston Hurd Chase and William G. Perry
Boston 1950

[Selection from the Opening]

SING, O GODDESS, of the wrath of Peleus’ son Achilles, the deadly wrath that brought upon the Achaeans countless woes and sent many mighty souls of heroes down to the house of Death and made their bodies prey for dogs and all the birds, as the will of Zeus was done, from the day when first the son of Atreus, king of men, and godlike Achilles parted in strife.

Which one of the gods, then, set them to strive in anger? The son of Leto and Zeus. For in anger at the king he sent a grim plague throughout the army, and the men perished, because the son of Atreus scorned Chryses, the priest, who came to the swift ships of the Achaeans to free his daughter, bearing a boundless random and holding in his hands upon a golden staff the garlands of unerring Apollo. He entreated all the Achaeans, but especially the two sons of Atreus, the marshals of the people: “Sons of Atreus, and you other well-greaved Achaeans, may the gods, who have their homes upon Olympus, grant that you sack the city of Priam and go safely home. And may you release my dear child to me and accept these gifts of ransom, reverencing the son of Zeus, unerring Apollo.”

Then all the rest of the Achaeans shouted their assent, to honor the priest and take the glorious ransom, but this did not please the heart of Agamemnon, Atreus’ son; rather, he sent him rudely off and laid on him a harsh command: “Let me not find you, old man, beside the hollow ships, either lingering now or coming back hereafter, lest the staff and garland of the god avail you not. Her I will not set free. Sooner even shall old age come upon her in my home in Argos, far from her native land, as she paces before the loom and shares my bed. Now go, anger me not, that you may go the safer.”

So he spoke, and the old man was afraid and obeyed his command and went in silence by the shore of the resounding sea. When he was far away, the aged man offered many a prayer to lord Apollo, whom fair-haired Leto bore: “Hear me, thou of the silver bow, who dost protect Chryse and hold Cilla and dost rule over Tenedos with might. Sminthian, if ever I roofed for thee a pleasant temple or if ever I burned for thee fat thighs of cattle and of goats, grant me this wish may the Danaans pay for my tears beneath thy shafts.”

REVIEW COMMENT

Chase’s and Perry’s prose translation appears to have received a generally friendly reception: the style was more accurate and less colloquial than Rouse’s prose translation and many (although not all) the traditional archaic expressions had been rendered in more modern English. For many readers who wanted an English Iliad in (more of less) contemporary prose, this seemed the obvious choice.

For a contemporary review of the Chase-Perry Iliad, use the following link: Saturday Review (1950).

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