The Iliad of Homer
translated into English Accentuated Hexameters
 by John F. W. Herschel
London 1866

[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]

THE ILIAD
BOOK I.

BOOK THE FIRST
 
ARGUMENT.

APOLLO at the prayer of his priest Chryses, whose daughter Agamemnon refuses to release, send a pestilence on the Greek army. At the instance of Achilles a council is called, in which Agamemnon agrees to resign his captive, but declares his intention to seize Briseis the captive of Achilles as an equivalent. A violent quarrel ensues between the Kings.  Achilles resigns his captive but withdraws his support from the cause of the Greeks.  Briseis is restored to her father, and sacrifice being made, Apollo is appeased. Thetis the mother of Achilles, moed by his prayers, petitions Zeus to avenge on the Greeks the insult thus offered to her son. He consents. Hera remonstrating, receives a rebuke in presence of the assembled Gods. Hephæstus consoles her.

ILIAD.  BOOK I.

SING, clestial Muse! the destroying wrath of Achilles,
Peleus’ son: which myriad mischiefs heaped on the Grecians,
Many a valiant hero’s soul dismissing to Hades;
Flinging their corses abroad for a prey to dogs and to vultures,
And to each bird of the air. Thus Jove’s high will was accomplished.
Ev’n from that fateful hour when opposed in angry contention
Stood forth Atreides, King of men, and godlike Achilles.
   Say, then! which of the Gods involved these two in their conflict?
JOVE’S and Leto’s Son! For he, with the leader offended
Sent on his army a plague, and his people were perishing round him:
For that Atreides his sacred Priest had rudely dishonoured;
Chryses, who suppliant came to the swift-sailing ships of the Grecians
Eager to rescue his daughter, and proff’ring unlimited ransom.
Wreaths in his hands he bore of the bright far-darting Apollo
Circline a sceptre of gold. Then thus besought he the Grecians
All; but th’ Atreidæ first, the two great arrayers of nations:
    “O ye Atreidæ! and you, ye bright-armed Greeks, to your valour
May the great Gods, who dwell in the lofty Olympian mansions
Grant the destruction of Troy, and a safe return to your country!
Only restore me my darling child, and accept what I offer
Ever revering the Son of Zeus, far-darting Apollo.”
    Then loud shouted the Greeks in assent: “Let her go! Let Apollo
Glorified be in his priest! Take, take the magnificent ransom!”
But Agamemnon, Atreus’ son, disdained his petition.
Roughly he drove him forth, and sternly rebuked him at parting.
    “Hence! Let me catch thee no more, old man, in our camp either ling’ring
Here round our hollow keeled ships, or returning again on thine errand.
Scarce should Apollo then, or his wreath, or sceptre, avail thee.
No! Set her free be thou sure I will not! till age overtake her
There in our palace at home, in Argos; far from her country,
Weaving the web, and performing th’ accustomed rites of my chamber.
Hence! I say.—Anger me not!—Thy retreat may so be the safer.”
    Thus spake the King: and the old man feared and shrank from the mandate.
Silent he crept by the loud-roaring sea, till far from the vessels
Then to Apollo supreme, the offspring of fair-haired Latona,
Thus in his anguish he prayed, with earnest and long supplication:—
    “Hear me! Thou of the silver bow!—Thou guardian of Chrysa!
Thou who encompassest Cilla the sacred! Thou whose dominion
Tenedos trembling owns!—O Smintheus! Hear me.—If ever
Decking thy temple with festive crowns I have burned on thine altar
Thigh of the bull or fat of the goat—oh! grant my petition:
Let thin arrows requite to the Greeks these tears I am shedding.”
Thus, loud sobbing, he prayed; and his prayer reached Phœbus Apollo.
Down from the lofty crest of Olympus he plunged on the instant,
Ire in his heart. On his shoulders his bow was slung, and his quiver
Gorgeously wrought, and the shafts clashed loud as he moved in his anger.
Down he swept, like the presence of night, and approaching alighted
Somewhat apart from the ships, and among them sent forth an arrow.
Dire was the twang of the silver bow! Then spread the contaigon.
First among mules, and the lazy dogs that prowled round the vessels.  
Next came a piercing shaft which, winged with bitterer vengeance
Flew through the ranks; and the funeral pyres blazed fast and unceasing.

REVIEW COMMENT

Herschel offers an interesting Preface, in which he mounts a stout defence of the hexameter as the most appropriate metre for translating Homer. He also explains his own approach to the task of translating Homer’s Greek: “Though a careful interpretation of the Greek it does not profess to be minutely close, much less a strictly literal translation: while on the other hand it eschews altogether any attempt to clothe the simple and rude majesty of the great original in such amplitude of decorated wording as to conceal its outlines.”  Of the recurring epithets, he has this to say, “But to be systematical reminded of these particulars almost whenever the persons or things so characterized are mentioned, is assuredly more in the nature of a blemish than a beauty.” Herschel is also one of the very few translators who with the use of italics deliberately calls attention to his additions to the text: “good faith both to the original and the reader requires that expletory words or phrases should be distinguished by some typographical difference.” The translation, as a whole, is not particularly inspiring or memorable and does little to demonstrate the poetic superiority of the hexameter, as a contempory reviewer remarked:

His translation, too, is rendered by hexameters. This we take to be a thorough mistake. . . .The whole question . . . of English hexmeters and quantitative prosody cannot be settled by any edict from Printing-house-square, but must be left to the great body of educated Englishmen. They have long ago, by the acceptance and welcome of Lord Derby’s blank-verse translation of the “Iliad,” decided against the English hexameter. . . . It would be most unfair . . . not to give Sir John Herschel great credit for his industry, care, and scholarship. Still, regarding his work simply from the mechanical point of view, we do not think that it bears any comparison with Mr. Dart’s version, also in hexameters. (Foreign Quarterly Review, 1867)

 Those who would like to access the full text of Herschel’s text should use the following link: Herschel’s Iliad.
 

[List of Published English Translations of Homer]