THE ILIAD OF HOMER
TRANSLATED
INTO
ENGLISH PROSE
AS LITERALLY AS THE DIFFERENT IDIOMS OF THE GREEK
AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES WILL ALLOW;
WITH
EXPLANANTORY NOTES
BY
A GRADUATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
IN TWO VOLUMES
1821
[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]
BOOK 1
ARGUMENT
Account of a pestilence inthe Grecian camp, and cause it. A council called. Fierce altercation takes place between Agamemnon and Achilles. Achilles renounces the field. Agamemnon demands Briseis. Achilles resigns her. He complains to Thetis, who undertakes to plead his cause with Jove. She pleads it, and prevails. What passed in heaven on that occasion.
Sing, Goddess, the destructive wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus, which brought many disasters upon the Greeks, and sent before their time many gallant souls of heroes to the infernal regions, and made them a prey to the dogs and to all the fowls of the air (for so the counsel of Jove was fulfilled) from the period at which Atrides, king of men, and godlike Achilles first contended.
Which of the Gods then urged them to the contest? It was the son of Jove and Latona; for, being indignant with the king, he excited a violent disease throughout the army, and the people perished; because Atrides had dishonoured Chryses the priest. For he came to the swift ships of the Greeks to redeem his daughter, bringing invaluable ransoms, and bearing in his hands the garlands of the far-darting Apollo, upon a golden sceptre. And he supplicated all the Greeks, but especially the sons of Atreus, the two leaders of the people:
“Ye sons of Atreus, and ye other well-armed Greeks, may the Gods who possess the Olympic mansions grant that ye may destroy the city of Priam, and return home in safety. But give freedom to my beloved daughter, and receive the ransoms, reverencing the son of Jove, the far-darting Apollo.”
Then all the other Greeks assented to respect the priest and to accept the rich ransoms. But it pleased not the mind of Agamemnon, the son of Atreus . . .
REVIEW COMMENT
This translation, as the full title and the preface make clear, strives to render the Greek as literally as possible within certain limits. The translator is so concerned about this point, that he supplies numerous footnotes in places where he thinks he may not have been sufficiently literal. Interestingly enough, he 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.”
What appears to motive his endeavour is a desire to be useful: “Let those who exclaim most loudly against literal translations reflect upon these things, and they will find, that the youth of good talents cannot be injured by such translations; whilst the youth of moderate talents may be greatly assisted by them.” If this was his aim, then the result is clearly a success: the English will not inspire anyone, but nor will it confuse or irritate them, and it could be very useful for anyone seeking assistance with Homer’s Greek text.
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.
For a link to the full text of this translation, use the following link: Graduate Iliad