/lit/ - Literature

Chapman. All other are pleb answers.

>>7251338
Pope > Chapman

Fitzgerald

homer

>>7251338
>>7251343
>>7251350
Thanks for the answers, an argument for your choices would be nice too.

>>7251329
If you're reading for fun, than Fagles or Lombardo (I prefer the latter) for a modern poetic style, Pope if you prefer an archaic poetic style.

If you're reading Homer to learn what the Greeks thought was so important about his epics, than go with Lattimore or Fitzgerald.

>>7251329
I've only read Fagles. There is a website where you can compare them, though.

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/englishing-the-iliad-grading-four-rival-translations

There you go.

I recently researched this question by taking a bunch of translations out of the library: Lattimore, Fitzgerald, Fagles, and Merrill.

I decided I prefer Fitzgerald's. It flows and is easy to read like the Fagles, but it's more poetic and dignified. Its language is richer. Fagles's language seems to me flat and bland, like a slice of bread. Not offensive, not hard to swallow, but no flavor. And he sometimes dips into colloquial vulgarisms like "cramp my style" and "knows the ropes."

Lattimore's translation is good and accurate, and it uses those long Homeric lines to try to capture the sense of the Greek in English, but it doesn't match Fitzgerald in poetics, I think. Where Lattimore has Zeus telling Hektor he'll "guarantee power to you to kill men," Fitzgerald has "give Hektor power of massacre," which is a phrase that's stuck with me. And Merrill? He renders it in an insistent dactylic hexameter that sounds to me like a metronome going in my head or something. Not for me.

So I recommend Fitzgerald.

>>7251387
>>7251391
>>7251411
Thanks, that's a big help.

lattimore is the most true to the original

A.T. Murray

http://www.theoi.com/Text/HomerIliad1.html

Pope's translation is technically good, but incredibly boring.

I'm trying to decide also.
Pope vs Fitzgerald?

>>7251769
Fitzgerald!

Pope and Fitzgerald are both good choices, but they're from different centuries. Try the Pope and see if you like it, then decide.

Merrill, because he not only puts it in Homer's meter, but he is very faithful besides. A joy to read

I got the Fagles translation, this is my first time reading the Iliad, but the introduction is massive.

Will finishing it help me out to understand the Iliad or should I just skip it?

>>7252275
i would consider reading it. you seem like a braindead retard who needs others to make the slightest decision for you, so any help would be good for someone as stupid as you.

Has anyone read the Samuel Butler translation? Is it any good?

If you don't mind a slight hijacking, any recs on Plato translations?

>>7252283
don't be like that

>>7252472
Look up the Focus Philosophical Library. That, or anything from U of Chicago.

>>7252520
well, how about I just knock you flat on you're ass you troll, that sound any better to you? just name the time and the place and i'll be there.

POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE

>>7251411
I also recommend Fitzgerald. I read Fagles as an undergrad, but when I started teaching the poem, I decided I preferred Fitzgerald's language and more-faithful spellings of names.

>>7252520
something about 4chan engenders such a reliance on the hivemind for the most pointless things

>>7252275
Do you know basic Greek mythology? Know the golden apples story and shit? If yes, then skip it.

LOMBARDO, BITCH

>>7252574
are you okay?

>>7252618
Lombardo is the man.

Fagles

>>7252608
what are you talking about?

>>7252691
4chan makes people stupid and ask dumb questions

>>7252723
i guess but it can show people things that they would have never found if they didn't come here

>>7252755
so can taking a trip in your local crackhouse.

>>7251411
>"cramp my style"
Why would anyone in their right mind do this?

>>7252767
you sayin' i can find calvino and borges together in a crack-house?

Which translation do I read if I'm trying to start with the Greeks?

>>7252781
the best one obviously

while we are at it, is this chart legit?

>>7251329
>translation

βρώμιkο πληβείοι

>>7252795
What does your heart tell you?

>>7252795
It's good for what it is.

It'd be a lot better if it said why some translations are better and had textual comparisons, etc. But there's only so much space.

>>7252811
My heart tells me to trust in /lit/, but not blindly.

>>7252814
Thank you anon. I can sleep now

Thoughts on E.V. Rieu?

>>7252847
Penguin Classics tier.

>>7254254
whats that supposed to mean?

is penguin classic's supposed to be bad or something?

My Classics professor wife suggests the Lattimore translation to everyone

>>7254482
I also suggest the Lattimore translation.

New: Lattimore or Fitzgerald
Old: Chapman or Pope

Choose any of these and you won't have chosen badly.

Fagles

Ok, what about the Odyssey?

>>7252283
im sorry, i just asked because you are the guys who know this stuff and i trust you guys

i barely started with the greeks, that's why I'm asking.

>>7252613
not really i guess I'll stick with reading it.

i actually already started it and it's pretty interesting.

>>7252283
>autism

>>7254768
--> >>7252574

>>7251357
kek

>>7254786
how bout I fucking drop you wanker cunt; bet you're an american you fucking batty

Anthony Verity- the new Oxford UP version