Homer
The Iliad
Or Achilles’ Wrath; At the Siege of Ilion
Reproduced in Dramatic Blank Verse
T. S. Norgate
[Sample from the Opening of the
Poem]
THE ILIAD OF HOMER
ARGUMENT OF THE FIRST BOOK. A.
INVOCATION TO THE
MUSE.—Chrysês, priest of Apollo, comes to the Achaian camp in hope to redeem his
daughter. Agamemnon, however, the commander in chief, whose prize she is, spurns
his petition. The old priest prays his god to avenge him: Apollo sends a fatal
pestilence into the Achaian camp. Achillês calls an assembly for enquiry; at
which the augur Calchas declares that Agamemnon is the cause of the plauge:
Agamemnon agrees to give up the damsel, but demands an equivalent to be given
him. Achillês accuses him of avarice: Agamemnon declares he will take an
equivalent by force. Achillês rates him roundly, and threatens to quit and go
home. Agamemnon in return threatens to take from him his prize damsel,
Brisêis.—Achillês is on the point of drawing his sword on Agamemnon, but Athênè,
the goddess of Wisdom, checks him: still they wrangle, till the assembly is
broken up. Agamemnon takes Brisêis, as he had threatened. Achillês invokes his
goddess-mother, Thetis, to ask Zeus for vengeance on Agamemnon. This she does,
and obtains his assent. Thence arise quarrels on Olympus between Zeus and his
Queen-wife, Hêrè: their son Hephaistos restores peace between them.
ALPHA: the prayers of Chrysès: plague breaks out
aongst the Argive host; the quarrel of their Chiefs.
Goddess! O sing the wrath of Pêleus’ son,
Achillès wrath,—baneful,—that on the Achaians
Brought countless woes; and sent untimely down
Full many a chieftain’s mighty soul to Hadès;
And gave their bodies for a prey to dogs,
And to all manner of birds: (but Jove’s high will
Was on achievement) from the time when first
Atreidès, chief of chiefs, and prince Achillès
Quarreleed and were at strife. And who of the gods,—
Who—brought them to dispute in strife together?
The son of Zeus and Lêto: for enraged
Against the king was He, and he spread sore sickness
Throughout the host; and men began to die;
Because Atreidès treated, yea, his priest,
The venerable Chrysès, with dishonour:
For come had he to the Argives’ nimble ships,—
Bearing in hand a wreath on golden sceptre,
A chaplet of Apollo, the Far-shooting,—
And bringing countless ransom, to redeem
His daughter; and he prayed the Achaians all,
But most of all the marshallers of the host,
Atreus’ two sons:—“O both ye sons of Atreus,
‘And all ye fair-greaved Argives!—may the gods,
‘Who dwell in high Olympian halls, give You
‘To sack Priam’s Town, and to return safe home!
‘But O now stand ye in awe of Jove’s dread son,
‘Apollo, the Far-shooting,—and release
‘Unto me my dear daughter; and kindly take
‘This for her ransom-price.”—Hereat at once
All the other Argives shouted their assent,
Both to revere the priest, and to accept
The splendid ransom: this howe’er pleased not
Atreidès Agamemnon’s heart, who harshly
Sent him away, and added this rough speech:
“Let me not here by our hollow ships, Old Man,
‘Light upon thee,—or lingering now, or coming
‘Again hereafter,—no, for neither sceptre,
‘Nor the god’s chaplet, should avail thee aught.
‘But Her I’ll not release; until old age
‘Shall come upon her in our house at Argos,
‘Far from her fatherland; and she shall ply
‘The loom, and share my bed. But hie! begone!
‘Provoke me not,—so mayst thou hence return
‘Safer and sounder!”—Spake he thus: whereat
That old man feared,—and straight obeyed his bidding;
And silent—went away, along the shore
Of the loud-sounding sea: the reverend sire,
Being come afar, prayed then aloud to his lord,
Apollo, whom the fair-haired Lêto bore:
“Hear me, O Smintheus! Thou of the Silver Bow!
‘Who guardest Chrysê, and the sacred Cillè,
‘And rul’st o’er Tenedos with mighty sway!
‘If e’er I’ve wreathed thee a graceful temple’s roof,
‘Or if at any time I’ve burnt for thee
‘Goats’ and bulls’ goodly thigh-bones, O fulfil me
‘This my desire: O let the Danaans pay
‘Yea for my tears by taste of thy swift arrows!”
So spake he praying: to whom a gracious ear
Phœbus Apollo gave; and angry at heart
Down from Olympus’ tops he came,—with bow
And quiver covered close, upon his shoulders:
Whereat, e’en as he moved along, his arrows
Rattled upon his shoulders in his wrath:
And he,—like unto night he came; then sat him,
Off from the ships, and sent an arrow amongst them:
And of the Silver Bow the twang was fearful.
REVIEW COMMENT
Norgate in his Preface rather airly dismisses earlier English translations of the Iliad: “But all these attempts, with failure more or less, will surely prepare the ground for some one eventually to produce a strong and full translation, in racy plain simple English, and in some one metre, without stanzas, that shall have a continuous and rapid flight.” He brushes aside the hexameter as a suitable metre and declares his preferance: “. . . the English line adopted for translation of Homer should be such as has an unvarying number of feet, and yet a varying number of syllables . . . The dramatic blank verse, with its five metres (the last metre or foot of the line very frequently having an additional weak syllable).”
Norgate’s strictures on the most appropriate metre may be all very well, but he seems to have quite neglected “plain simple English” in favour of an artifically aged diction and often awkward syntax (“damsel,” “hereat,” “rates him roundly,” “Yea for my tears,” “of the silver bow the twang was fearful,” and so on). Norgate is among the first published translators of the entire poem to use Greek name for the gods, as opposed to their Latin equivalents.
For a contemporary review of Norgate’s Iliad, use the following link: Review Norgate
For access to the complete translation, please use the following link: Norgate Iliad.