Homer’s Iliad
translated into English Hexameters
by James Inglis Cochrane
Edinburgh:
Printed for Private Circulation
1867
[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]
HOMER’S
ILIAD.
BOOK FIRST.
SING, O heavenly
goddess, the wrath of Peleides Achilles,
Ruinous wrath, whence
numberless woes came down on Achaia,
Many a valiant soul of
her sons untimely dismissing,
Sending to Hades; their
mangl’d bodies a prey to the vultures
5 Left,
and the dogs:—but the counsels of Zeus meanwhile were evolving—
E’en from
the time, when contention arising ’tween King Agamemnon,
Ruler of heroes, and
godlike Achilles, they stood disunited.
Who
of the great gods caus’d these heroes to wrangle and
combat?
Offspring of Leto and
Zeus: he, wroth with the king, had excited
10 All
through the army a baleful disease, and the people by thousands
Perish’d,
because of Atreides’ dishonour to Chryses
the aged,
Priest of the gods; who
had come to the swift-wing’d ships of Achaia,
Carrying rich gifts
many, his daughter beloved to ransom,
Bearing the wreath in
his hands, of the high, far-darting Apollo,
15 Hung
on a sceptre of gold; where thus he entreated the Argives,
Chiefly the brothers Atreidae, the two great heads of the people:
“Hear
me, Atreidae, and all well-greav’d,
brave-hearted Achaians!
O may the gods, who
inhabit the mansions of lofty Olympus
Grant that the city of
Priam ye sack, home safely returning!
20 Further,
my daughter beloved release, these ransoms accepting;
Thus shall ye reverence
show Zeus-born, far-darting Apollo.”
Shouting
applause, the immense host cheer’d, and consented to
honour
Chryses the
priest, and accept the magnificent ransoms he proffcr’d:
Only the soul of incens’d Agamemnon, the monarch, it pleas’d
not;
25 Him
he dismiss’d with disgrace, this harsh speech
scornfully adding:
“Thee,
old man, take heed by the deep-hull’d ships that I
find not,
Either at this time
waiting, or yet hereafter returning;
Sceptre and wreath of
Apollo would then prove futile to aid thee.
Her I shall never
release until safe in our mansion at Argos
30 Age
comes on her apace, far, far from the land of her fathers,
While she is plying the
loom, and at couch-time waiting my coming.
Hence! and enrage not
my soul, if to reach home safe thou desirest.”
Ended:
The old man fearing obey’d; thence taking his lone way
On by the shore which
the huge wave, hollow-voic’d, boisterous, lashes.
35 Whereupon,
far from the others apart having wander’d, the prophet
Pray’d to
Apollo, whom Leto the fair-hair’d bore to Kronion:
“Hear my request, thou
god of the silvery bow, who protectest
Chrysa and Killa divine, and with power over Tenedos reignest
Smintheus! if
ever to thee I have rear’d an appropriate temple,
40 Ever
to thee fat thighs on the sacred altar have off’er’d,
Either of bulls or of
goats, O grant that my pray’r may be answer’d;
Grant that my tears be aveng’d on the Argives, aveng’d
by thine arrows!”
Ended
the old man praying; and him heard Phoebus Apollo.
Instant in wrath forth
darted the god from the top of Olympus,
45 Bearing
his bow and the lid-clos’d quiver of shafts on his
shoulders.
Rattl’d the
arrows the quiver within, as, enrag’d in his bosom,
Onward he mov’d; and, advancing, he spread dark night all round him.
Then he apart from the
ships sat down, and directed an arrow :
Loud twang’d, ringing, the string of the silvery bow in
rebounding.
50 Sleek
mules foremost he smote, then swift dogs, fiercely attacking ;
Afterwards, full at the
host he his keen barb’d arrows directed,
Smiting in rage, until
frequent the pyres of the corses were burning.
REVIEW COMMENT
Cochrane joins the long list of
those who wish to argue that the six-beat hexameter line is a form well suited
to English verse and particularly to Homer. He offers a few observations
on the issue in a short preface which he published with Book I of the Iliad (in
1862).
The Translator is of opinion, that
the arguments in favour of the measure have never been answered by its
opponents. One thing is certain, the measure has been successfully introduced
into the German language, and the genius of the English and German languages
being the same, it follows, as a matter of course, that there should be no
difficulty in the case. After a careful examination of the two languages, the
Translator agrees with Coleridge in thinking that the English language
possesses certain advantages over the German for the successful introduction of
the measure, and that the German has no advantages to counterbalance these.
His complete translation was
published after his death with the same preface.
The only satisfactory resolution to
this apparently endless argument is surely a pragmatic one: Has anyone produced
a hexameter version of the poem which we recognize as a masterful rendition of
Homer into English? Endless debates about
the rules of Greek metre or the suitability of the hexameter for German poetry,
interesting as they may be, are beside the point. Cochrane’s
translation is clearly insufficiently imaginative and moving to provide the
only justification for the hexameter which matters, especially since it leads
him into such curious English constructions as “Ended the old man praying,”
“rich gifts many,” and so on.
Readers who like to access the full text of Cochrane’s
translation should use the following link: Cochrane
Iliad.