Homer, Iliad
Translated by A. T. Murray
Loeb Classical Library,
London 1924

[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]

The wrath do thou sing, O goddess, of Peleus’ son, Achilles, that baneful wrath which brought countless woes upon the Achaeans, and sent forth to Hades many valiant souls of warriors, and made themselves to be a spoil for dogs and all manner of birds; and thus the will of Zeus was being brought to fulfilment; from the time when at the first there parted in strife Atreus’ son, king of men, and goodly Achilles.

Who then of the gods was it that brought these two together to contend? The son of Leto and Zeus; for he in wrath against the king roused throughout the host an evil pestilence, and the folk were perishing, for that upon the man Chryses, his priest, had the son of Atreus wrought dishonour. For he had come to the swift ships of the Achaeans to free his daughter, and he bore with him ransom past counting; and in his hands he held the fillets of Apollo, that smiteth afar, on a staff of gold, and he made prayer to all the Achaeans, but most of all to the two sons of Atreus, the marshallers of the host: “Ye sons of Atreus, and ye other well-greaved Achaeans, to you may the gods who have homes upon Olympus grant that ye sack the city of Priam, and return safe to your homes; but my dear child do ye set free for me, and accept the ransom out of awe for the son of Zeus, Apollo, that smiteth afar.”

Then all the rest of the Achaeans shouted assent, bidding reverence the priest and accept the glorious ransom, yet the thing pleased not the heart of Agamemnon, son of Atreus, but he sent him away harshly, and laid upon him a stern command: “Let me not find thee, old man, by the hollow ships, either tarrying now or coming back hereafter, lest thy staff and the fillet of the god protect thee not. But her will I not set free: ere that shall old age come upon her in our house, in Argos, far from her country, as she walks to and fro before the loom and tends my couch. Nay, get thee gone; anger me not, that so thou mayest go the safer.”

So he spake, and the old man was seized with fear and hearkened to his word. Forth he went in silence along the shore of the loud-resounding sea, and earnestly thereafter, when he had gone apart, did the old man pray to the prince, Apollo, whom fair-haired Leto bare: “Hear me, thou of the silver bow, who dost stand over Chryse and holy Cilla, and dost rule mightily over Tenedos, thou Sminthian, if ever I roofed over a shrine to thy pleasing, or if ever I burned to thee fat thigh-pieces of bulls or goats, fulfil thou for me this prayer: let the Danaans pay for my tears by thy shafts.”

So he spake in prayer, and Phoebus Apollo heard him. Down from the peaks of Olympus he strode, wroth at heart, bearing on his shoulders his bow and covered quiver. The arrows rattled on the shoulders of the angry god, as he moved; and his coming was like the night. Then he sate him down apart from the ships and let fly a shaft: terrible was the twang of the silver bow. The mules he assailed first and the swift dogs, but thereafter on the men themselves he let fly his stinging arrows, and smote; and ever did the pyres of the dead burn thick.

REVIEW COMMENT

This volume from the excellent Loeb Classical Library is the text of choice for those who want the English translation with the Greek on a facing page.  Murray’s prose is not particularly remarkable, but it is well suited to the purposes of the series, which is aimed especially at those who wish to read the Greek with an accurate and clear (if not very inspiring) English translation close at hand (the text has recently been revised and updated by William Wyatt).  Those who require only the English text should look elsewhere, if for no other reason than the (alas) increasing expense of these famous and useful texts.

For a brief contemporary review of Murray’s Iliad, use the following link: Classical Review, Volume 40 (1926)

For the complete Murray translation, please use the following link: Murray Iliad.

The Murray (1924) translation is available in the Parsed Interlinear Text of the Iliad (with English and Greek texts and a very through grammatical analysis of each word) prepared by John Jackson, an extremely valuable resource for those beginning their studies of Homeric Greek (available here: Jackson Iliad Interlinear Text).

[List of Published English Translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey]