Homer’s Iliad
Translated from the Original Greek
Into English Hexameters
By
Edwin W. Simcox
[Sample from the Opening Lines]
HOMER’S ILIAD
BOOK I.
THE QUARREL BETWEEN ACHILLEUS AND AGAMEMNON
SING, O Muse, the wrath of
Peleidëan Achilleus;
Baleful cause of a myriad woes to the sons of Achaia;
Full many valiant souls did it send, prematurely, to
Hades,
Of heroes, whose bodies because a prey to the wild
dogs,
And all the birds of the air—(but the counsel of Zeus
was accomplished)—
When division arose ‘twixt him, that chief, and the
king Agamemnon,
And in contention, Atreides vied with the noble
Achilleus.
Which of the gods impelled that might pair to
contention?
Leto’s and Zeus’s son; for he, being wroth with the
monarch,
Raised ‘mid the army an evil disease; and the nations
were dying;
For that, a treatment of scorn, had received at the
hands of Atreides
Chruses, his pontiff, who sought the swift ships of
the Grecians,
Hoping his daughter to free, and bringing vast gold
for her ransom,
Bearing the while, in his hands the wreath of
far-darting Apollon,
And his sceptre of gold, and for favour besought he
the Grecians,
But the Atreidai, chiefly, the two commanders of
nations.
“O! ye Atreidai, and the rest of the well-greaved
Achaians,
“You, may the deities grant, who abide in Olympian
mansions,
“Priam’s city to spoil, and to voyage happily
homeward;
“Give but to me my daughter dear, and accept of the
ransom—
“Fearing the son of Zeus, the distant-darting
Apollon.”
Then did the rest of the Greeks express their full
approbation
Honour to give to the priest, and accept of the
glorious ransom;
But this please not the mind of the king of men,
Agamemnon;
Shamefully he dismissed the priest and threats
superadded:
“Lest, old man, by the hollow ships, my anger should
reach thee,
“Linger not now in departure, and thing not again of
returning,
“Else right little will aid thee the wreath and the
sceptre of Phoibos.
“I will not the daughter release ere old age come upon
her;
“She, in my palace at Argos, shall stay, far away from
her country,
“Plying the loom and preparing my bed, or else its
companion;
“Hence then, and anger me not, for so will thy going
be safer!”
REVIEW COMMENT
The final remark in Simcox’s Preface describes his translation as well as any other single comment might: “The present translation shows the reader very nearly what ‘the blind bard of Chios’ rugged isle’ really says; but if any man wishes to know how he says it, he must read the lofty-sounding original for himself.” Yes, one does get an accurate rendition of Homer’s text, but the poetical style is so labored, it makes one appreciate why in some quarters English versions of Homer in hexameter verse were so excoriated.
For a contemporary review of Simcox’s translation of the Iliad, use the following link: Saturday Review (1865)
For a link to the complete text, please click on Simcox Iliad
[List of Published English Translations of Homer]