Homer
Iliad
Translated by a Graduate of the University of Oxford
1841
[Sample
from the Opening of the Poem]
Sing, Goddess, the destructive wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus, which brought myriad disasters upon the Achaeans,
and sent many gallant souls of heroes to Hades, and made themselves a prey to
dogs and all birds of prey for
so the counsel of Jove was fulfilled), from the time when, first, Atrides, king of men, and the godlike Achilles, quarrelling
with each other, separated.
This translation, as Young points out (p. 128), strives to render
the Greek as literally as possible (“The Iliad of
Homer, translated into English Prose, as literally as the different idioms of
the Greek and English languages will allow; with explanatory notes”). The
translator, interestingly enough, complains about the hostility of scholars to
literal translations and about the drudgery of translation: “To translate the
poetry of one language into the prose of another, is, to say the least of it,
an irksome task, and necessarily obliges the translator to lay aside every
elegance in his composition. With
respect to Homer, in particular, these objectives are peculiarly strong” (qu.
Young 128). The translator is
careful to indicate any additions he has made to the poem (e.g., the phrase “of
prey” placed in italics above).
The identity of the translator is not clear. Young
lists an Odyssey (1797)
“translated into English prose, as literally as the different
idioms of the Greek and English languages will allow; with explanatory notes;
by a member of the University of Oxford” but notes that this is a “burlesque
translation.” He lists the translator or author as
Henry Francis Cary (1772-1844), famous later in life as a translator of
Dante. Biographies
of Cary, however, apparently fail to mention translations of the Iliad or
the Odyssey and,
so far as I can tell, library catalogues include no such translation among the
entries for Cary.
In his bibliography Young lists Cary’s translation under the year
1821, but earlier in book (128) says the translation appeared in 1841.
[List of
Published English Translations of Homer’s Iliad
and Odyssey]