Homer
The Iliad
Translated by A. S. Kline
Online Text
2009
[Selection from the opening of the poem
Bk I: 1-21 Invocation and Introduction
Goddess, sing me the
anger of Achilles, Peleus’
son, that fatal anger that brought countless sorrows on the Greeks, and sent many valiant souls of
warriors down to Hades, leaving
their bodies as spoil for dogs and carrion birds: for thus was the will of Zeus brought to fulfilment. Sing of it
from the moment when Agamemnon, Atreus’ son, that king of men, parted
in wrath from noble Achilles.
Which of the gods set these two to quarrel? Apollo, the son of Leto and Zeus, angered by the king, brought an evil plague on the army, so that the men were dying, for the son of Atreus had dishonoured Chryses the priest. He it was who came to the swift Achaean ships, to free this daughter, bringing a wealth of ransom, carrying a golden staff adorned with the ribbons of far-striking Apollo, and called out to the Achaeans, above all to the two leaders of armies, those sons of Atreus: ‘Atreides, and all you bronze-greaved Achaeans, may the gods who live on Olympus grant you to sack Priam’s city, and sail back home in safety, but take this ransom, and free my darling child; show reverence for Zeus’ son, far-striking Apollo.’
Bk I: 22-52 Chryses invokes Apollo
Then rest of the
Achaeans shouted in agreement, that the priest should be respected, and the
fine ransom taken, but this troubled the heart of Agamemnon, son of Atreus,
and he dismissed the priest harshly, and dealt with him sternly: ‘Old man, don’t
let me catch you loitering by the hollow ships today, and don’t be back later,
lest your staff and the god’s ribbons fail to protect you. Her, I shall not
free; old age will claim her first, far from her own country, in Argos, my home, where she can tend the
loom, and share my bed. Away now, don’t provoke me if you’d leave safely.’
So he spoke, and the
old man, seized by fear, obeyed. Silently, he walked the shore of the echoing
sea; and when he was quite alone, the old man prayed deeply to Lord Apollo, the son of bright-haired Leto: ‘Hear me,
Silver Bow, protector of Chryse and holy Cilla, high lord of Tenedos: if ever I built a shrine that pleased you, if ever
I burned the fat thighs of a bull or goat for you, grant my wish: Smintheus, with
your arrows make the Greeks pay for my tears.’
So he prayed, and
Phoebus Apollo heard him. Down he came, in fury, from the heights of Olympus, with his bow and inlaid quiver
at his back. The arrows rattled at his shoulder as the god descended like the
night, in anger. He set down by the ships, and fired a shaft, with a fearful
twang of his silver bow. First he attacked the mules, and the swift hounds,
then loosed his vicious darts at the men; so the dense pyres for the dead
burned endlessly.
REVIEW COMMENT
Kline’s prose diction
is direct, clear, and energetic. The sentence structure is occasionally a bit
loose (as in the opening sentence in paragraph 3 above), but it keeps the poem
moving. Those seeking a straight-forward prose translation of the epic should
certainly consider this readable text, which is freely available online for
non-commercial purposes.
The online text contains hyperlinks (indicated in the above
selection by words in a bold font) to a combined glossary and index, a very
useful tool for readers who get confused by the enormous number of names and
places.
This translation is now
also available as a published book from Amazon or from Poetry in Translation.
For