Homer


Iliad



Translated by Ian Johnston
Vancouver Island University
Nanaimo, BC
Canada

Revised Edition 2010

 

For a Word (Rich Text Format) version of this translation, please use the following link: Iliad [RTF]

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)

 

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]

 

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”).

These pages may be downloaded and distributed by students, teachers, performing and visual artists, and members of the general public, without permission and without charge. They may edit or adapt the texts to suit their purposes. Commercial publication of these pages, in whole or in part, in any form is not permitted without the permission of the translator.

 

For questions or comments please contact Ian Johnston.

 



Glossary and Index for the Iliad

List of Deaths in the Iliad

List of English Translations of the Iliad and Odyssey

Index of Speeches in the Iliad

Essays on the Iliad (by Ian Johnston)

 

 

A NOTE ON THE TRANSLATOR

 

Ian Johnston is an Emeritus Professor at Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, British Columbia. He is the author of The Ironies of War: An Introduction to Homer’s Iliad and of Essays and Arguments: A Handbook for Writing Student Essays. He also translated a number of works, including the following:


Aeschylus, Oresteia (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides)
Aeschylus, Persians
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound
Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes
Aeschylus, Suppliant Women
Aristophanes, Birds
Aristophanes, Clouds
Aristophanes, Frogs
Aristophanes, Knights
Aristophanes, Lysistrata
Aristophanes, Peace
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (Abridged)
Cuvier, Discourse on the Revolutionary Upheavals on the Surface of the Earth
Descartes, Discourse on Method
Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
Diderot, A Conversation Between D’Alembert and Diderot
Diderot, D’Alembert’s Dream
Diderot, Rameau’s Nephew
Euripides, Bacchae
Euripides, Electra
Euripides, Hippolytus
Euripides, Medea
Euripides, Orestes
Homer, Iliad (Complete and Abridged)
Homer, Odyssey (Complete and Abridged)
Kafka, Metamorphosis
Kafka, Selected Shorter Writings
Kant, Universal History of Nature and Theory of Heaven
Kant, On Perpetual Peace
Lamarck, Zoological Philosophy, Volume I
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things
Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy
Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals
Nietzsche, On the Uses and Abuses of History for Life
Ovid, Metamorphoses
Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men [Second Discourse]
Rousseau, Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts [First Discourse]
Rousseau, Social Contract
Sophocles, Antigone
Sophocles, Ajax
Sophocles, Electra
Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus
Sophocles, Oedipus the King
Sophocles, Philoctetes
Wedekind, Castle Wetterstein
Wedekind, Marquis of Keith.

 

Most of these translations have been published as books or audiobooks (or both)—by Richer Resources Publications, Broadview Press, Naxos, Audible, and others.

 

Ian Johnston maintains a web site where texts of these translations are freely available to students, teachers, artists, and the general public. The site includes a number of Ian Johnston’s lectures on these (and other) works, handbooks, curricular materials, and essays, all freely available.

The addresses where these texts are available are as follows:

 

https://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/

 http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/index.html


For comments and questions, please contact Ian Johnston.