Best Iliad translation.

[Anonymous No.15428900]

>Butler, Lattimore, Fitzgerald, Fagles or Lombardo
Which is the best translation???

Let's finally settle it.

[Anonymous No.15428905]

La Wik(abridged) is surely the patrician choice

[Anonymous No.15428907]

>>15428900
Butler. Quit making this thread now.

[Anonymous No.15428912]

Chapman

[Anonymous No.15428918]

>>15428900
Butler is the best prose translation. Translating poetry into poetry is retarded.

[Anonymous No.15428929]

>>15428900
I prefer Fitzgerald, but Lattimore is objectively the best (early reviews just said “yeah he basically is just writing in greek, as far as english can handle such a thing”). Lombardo is nice if you need a style that’s going to keep your attention. Fagles is good for first time readers. Butler, Iliad, Chapman...any of these older translations are fine but you gotta have the mindset that you’re probably not going to get through them because there’s a second-layer language barrier there unless you are familiar with the diction of their respective time periods. Unpopular opinion: even the Penguin Classic prose edition (Reeves maybe?) is fine so long as you get it all down cold.

[Anonymous No.15428933]

Dryden is by far the best translation. It is not even a contest. The fact that you didn't even list him is not surprising given you use frog images though.

[Anonymous No.15428946]

>>15428907
>>15428918
But he's just prose. Doesn't everyone say Lattimore did a fantastic job at the lyrics?

>>15428912
Literally who?

>>15428929
>Butler, Iliad, Chapman...any of these older translations
Iliad?

>>15428933
Who?

[Anonymous No.15428948]

Do you want to get a sense for the Iliad? Lattimore, or Lang and Butcher.

Do you want something epic that Doesn’t try to convey the style of the Iliad? Pope

Something in between? Chapman.

[Anonymous No.15428961]

>>15428946
Oh fuck lol I meant Pope sorry

Illiad based translator of the “Iliad”

[Anonymous No.15428976]

>>15428946
And fyi George Chapman was the gold standard until Pope. He’s what Shakespeare *MAY* have read (his contemporaries most certainly), and was immortalized in John Keats’ “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer.”

[Anonymous No.15428977]

>>15428961
>Illiad based translator of the “Iliad”
It all makes sense now.

Definitely gonna go with this one.

[Anonymous No.15429008]

whats wrong with fagles?

[Anonymous No.15429036]

>>15428976
Thanks.

[Anonymous No.15429042]

>>15429008
>fagles

[Anonymous No.15429064]

>>15429008
Nothing, but from what I know Fagles is aiming at making a Greek poem enjoyable in English whereas Lattimore is trying to preserve a Greek poem in English. Shit explanation but the most immediate example that comes to mind is the opening descriptions in the Odyssey. Fagles opts for “Odysseus, man of twists and turns” whereas Lattimore opts for “Odysseus, man of many ways.” The former is playing on English alliteration (obviously a non-existent effect for ancient Greek) and the latter is opening a philosophical expressiveness. Fagles is going to rely on certain poetic effects that absolutely help navigate the text but that are ultimately just not there. Lattimore is going to work his ass off to find alternative routes to preserving the implication of certain poetic effects but not stuff it with distinctively English poetics. Again, though, Fagles is great for a first read because it’s about the story and the musicality that gets you into the store, whereas Lattimore is good for a more serious literary dissection.

[Anonymous No.15429077]

>>15429064
alright thanks bro

[Anonymous No.15429078]

>>15429064
So it's settled?

Which cover for Lattimore is the best then?

[Anonymous No.15429085]

How is Fitzgerald? Can I just remove him from my translation list for the immediate time or does it he add something to translations other than "I really liked Fitzgerald's transltion" and etc etc.

[Anonymous No.15429086]

>>15429064
a complicated man

[Anonymous No.15429102]

>>15429078
The orangish one for Iliad, the blue sea one for Odyssey. Fitzgerald’s hardback Iliad is much more aesthetic though. Beneath the dust jacket you have Achilles engraved in gold. Pic related.

[Anonymous No.15429103]

I read this one

[Anonymous No.15429111]

>>15429086
Honestly I find “a complicated man” to be hilarious and the rest of Wilson’s translation is fairly orthodox and solis so I really, really don’t think she meant it as like a hard-lined opener. I think it’s supposed to be bait, which obviously worked.

[Anonymous No.15429112]

>>15429102
I saw two leatherbound of the Iliad and Odyssey by Lattimore yet I haven't been able to find it; any help or just some rare edition?

[Anonymous No.15429124]

>>15428907
>>15428918
Just read the first chapter from the butler version I have from canterbury classics Pretty dope for prose.

[Anonymous No.15429125]

>>15429085
Out of all the translations I’ve read (and I’ve read most, though some more critically than others) he really is my favorite for the Iliad. I see him as an in between for someone like Lattimore, who is literally the best but sometimes a certain momentum gets lost, and Lombardo, who, to put it in perspective, starts his version with “Rage, rage!” and has a picture of D-Day on the cover (very overblown, dramatic, intense, etc.).

tl;dr I think he is more exciting line by line than a lot of translations but not at the expense of the natural pace the drawn out narrative requires.

[Anonymous No.15429131]

>>15429112
No clue. I’ve only seen paperback reprints. Leatherbound has to be rare or someone’s independent project?

[Anonymous No.15429134]

>>15429125
So I'll read some Fagles, then all of Lattimore and supplemented with a bit of Fitzgerald? Easy enough.

[Anonymous No.15429142]

>>15429134
Idk if that’s a good approach. I usually just read a new translation ever year or so until I fleshed out what I liked. Like I know I never need to reread Chapman because it was a slog and literally made me like Homer less, but I learned that independent from the time I first picked up Fitzgerald on a whim and fell in love with it, which is distinct from the time I had to read Fagles for a course or Lattimore because I was doing a paper, etc.

[Anonymous No.15429155]

>>15429134
If you’ve never read either, especially back to back, I’d say just read Fagles and wait to come to Lattimore later especially if you’re in hs no offense

[Anonymous No.15429160]

>>15429131
Nvm picture says Lattimore, turns out to be rare Fitzgerald.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/odyssey-homer-iliad-programmed-1899219765

>>15429142
Thank you, I've read up to chapter 11 I believe of Fagles so I think I have a fairly good grounding in him for Lattimore and Fitzgerald.

[Anonymous No.15429168]

>>15429155
Appreciated.

[Anonymous No.15429169]

Pope

[Anonymous No.15429599]

Reck, fite me

[Anonymous No.15429611]

>>15428900
William Morris

>I sing of arms, I sing of him, who from the Trojan land
>Thrust forth by Fate, to Italy and that Lavinian strand >First came: all tost about was he on earth and on the deep
>By heavenly might for Juno’s wrath, that had no mind to sleep:
>And plenteous war he underwent ere he his town might frame
>And set his Gods in Latian earth, whence is the Latin name,
>And father-folk of Alba-town, and walls of mighty Rome.

[Anonymous No.15430405]

>>15428900
You really should just learn Greek.

[Anonymous No.15430605]

First time Fitz, latter times Lattimore