Homer
Iliad
Translated by
Ian Johnston
Vancouver Island University
Nanaimo, BC
Canada
This translation is dedicated to my son Geoffrey
(1974-1997) and to my grandson Fabian (b. 1992)
Generations of men are like the
leaves.
In winter, winds blow them down to earth,
but then, when spring season comes again,
budding wood grows more. And so with men--
one generation grows, another dies away.
(Iliad 6.181-5)
This translation, based on the Greek text in Homer.
Homeri Opera, Oxford University Press, 1920, was first published on the internet
in 2002 and by Richer Resources Publications in 2006, ISBN 978-0-9776269-8; LCCN
2006924334. It has undergone minor revisions since. A recording of this text was
produced by Naxos audiobooks in 2006.
This document is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution CC by 4.0 and thus, provided the
source is acknowledged, it may be (a) downloaded and distributed, in whole or in
part, without permission and without charge and (b) freely edited and adapted to
suit the particular needs of the person using it.
To download a Rich Text Format (Word) or PDF version of this translation, please use the following links: Iliad [RTF] and Iliad [PDF]
Note that an abridged text of this translation of the
Iliad, about one third the length of the original, is available through the
following link: Iliad
Abridged.
Book
1: The Quarrel by the Ships
Book 2:
Agamemnon's Dream and The Catalogue of Ships
Book
3: Paris, Menelaus, and Helen
Book 4: The
Armies Clash
Book 5:
Diomedes Goes to Battle
Book 6:
Hector and Andromache
Book 7: Hector and
Ajax
Book 8: The Trojans
Have Success
Book 9: Peace
Offerings to Achilles
Book 10: A Night
Raid
Book 11: The
Achaeans Face Disaster
Book 12: The Fight
at the Barricade
Book 13: The Trojans
Attack the Ships
Book 14: Zeus
Deceived
Book 15: Battle at
the Ships
Book 16: Patroclus
Fights and Dies
Book 17: The Fight
Over Patroclus
Book 18: The
Arms of Achilles
Book 19:
Achilles and Agamemnon
Book 20:
Achilles Returns to Battle
Book 21:
Achilles Fights the River
Book 22: The
Death of Hector
Book 23: The
Funeral Games for Patroclus
Book 24:
Achilles and Priam
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
[August 11, 2000, Revised Text 2019]
This translation aims to
provide an accurate text of the Iliad in a modern English poetic idiom. It is
designed, first and foremost, for those who are reading Homer's poem for the
first time. I welcome any suggestions for improvements in the accuracy and
fluency.
This text uses the traditional Latinate spellings and
common English equivalents for the Greek names, e.g., Achilles, Clytaemnestra,
Achaeans, Menelaus, Hecuba, rather than modern renditions which strive to stay
more closely to the Greek: Akhilleus, Klytaimnestra, Akhaians, Menelaos, Hekabe,
and so on, with the exception of a very few names of gods—Cronos, Ouranos—and a
few others (e.g., Idaios). And where there is a common English rendition of the
name (e.g., Ajax, Troy, Teucer), I have used that. A dieresis over a vowel
indicates that it is pronounced by itself (e.g., Coön rhymes with “go on” not
with “goon,” Deïphobus is pronounced “Day-ee-phobus” not “Day-phobus” or
“Dee-phobus”).
In this English text, the
possessive of names ending in -s is usually indicated in the customary
way by adding
’s
(e.g., Zeus, Zeus’s;
Atreus, Atreus’s,
and so on). This convention has the effect of adding a syllable to the word (the
sound -iz). It also sometimes produces a rather odd-sounding result.
Thus, for metrical and euphonic reasons, the possessive of a name is in places
indicated by a simple apostophe, without the s (an alternative fairly
common in written English): e.g., Achilles’
anger instead of Achilles’s
anger. This latter procedure does not add an extra syllable to the
word. In the above example, Achilles’
has three syllables, unlike Achilles’s,
which has four.
If you would like the entire text of the Iliad sent
to you in a single Word file, please contact Ian
Johnston.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
Full Glossary and
Index for the Iliad
List
of the Deaths in the Iliad
List of English Translations of the Iliad and Odyssey
Index of
Speeches in the Iliad
Essays on the Iliad
Homeric Similes in the Iliad and Odyssey (a Numbered List)