/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21723589]

I'm reading this and can barely understand what's going on. Is there any remedy, apart from reading synopses?

Reading translated poetry feels futile.

[Anonymous No.21723633]

>>21723589
If you can’t understand it in English you won’t understand it in Attic Greek. This is a reader’s problem

[Anonymous No.21723647]

>>21723589
just keep trying

[Anonymous No.21723653]

>>21723589
wtf its not hard to follow are you fucking stupid? its literally meant for illiterate plebians

[Anonymous No.21723686]

>>21723589
my man I don't know what to tell you this is literally the straightest possible literature, just a guy yelling a story
the greeks have cool kneepads they murder trojan and want to fuck each other that's abot it

[Anonymous No.21723698]

>>21723589
You have to read a bit about the historical context. You need to know about the backstory of Achilles for example.
Read a good, short summary before starting a new chapter, this will help a lot.
To put it in a way, so a zoomer like you can understand it better. For you, reading Iliad is like watching Avangers Endgame, without knowing anything about Marvel. It helps to know who superman is, before watching it. For context.

[Anonymous No.21723707]

im reading the lattimore translation. I was told it retains a versification similar to that of the original greek, but i'm really not feeling any rythm, it feels like stacked prose. is this normal?

[Anonymous No.21723727]

>>21723686
>and want to fuck each other
No this is meme, the homo stuff was invented hundreds of years later, there are homos i the Iliad only cross dresser.

[Anonymous No.21723728]

>>21723707
Try reading the translator's note, retard, Lattimore explains it in the third paragraph.

>My aim has been to give a rendering of the Iliad which will convey the
meaning of the Greek in a speed and rhythm analogous to the speed and rhythm
I find in the original. The best meter for my purpose is a free six-beat line. My
line can hardly be called English hexameter. It is less regular than that of
Longfellow, or the recent Smith-Miller translation of the Iliad. It is not based on
a quantitative theory (or any other theory) as is Robert Bridges’ rendering of part
of the Aeneid. I have allowed trochees, anapests for dactyls, and even iambs for
spondees. The line is to be read with its natural stress, not forced into any
system.

[Anonymous No.21723733]

>>21723727
sure anon it says lots about your masculinity that you can't cope with the fact that guys were fucking each other 7 thousand years ago

[Anonymous No.21723746]

>>21723733
Why should they? They could literally rape any women, they would find out in the nature or on the field. Free pussy were everywhere. You would fuck a man only if you would molested as a child, or if there is pussy shortage.

[Anonymous No.21723756]

>>21723733
there's no such thing in the Iliad, I'm sorry your herders have filled your mutated bioleninist brain with this shit, it's not your fault

[Anonymous No.21723757]

>>21723728
i read it already, I don't see how it's answering my question. according to the translator's note I should be feeling some kind of rythm, unless if the original greek has little rythm

[Anonymous No.21723761]

>>21723746
Have you read the book you fucking retard they were laying siege to a city on a shitty beach for 10 years, do you think Odysseus was flying the Lolita Express to bring fresh jailbait every week?
Also contrary to what you think, you couldn't just walk around like Conan the fucking Barbarian, the aegeic society had law enforcement and a justice system.
>they would find out in the nature or on the field. Free pussy were everywher
let me retract the question, I know you didn't read the book, but have you ever looked at Greece on fucking google earth?
>>21723756
I don't know why you think it changes anything in my life if the greeks were or weren't on a quest for bussy, because I don't need to know Achilles was straight to be straight, I just am straight.

[Anonymous No.21723794]

>>21723761
No did not read the Illiad yet, i am reading the Odyssey right now.
Iliad was written 3k years ago, not 7k. A talked about the time 7k years ago, the time before even proto-indo-european civilization was a thing

[Anonymous No.21723871]

>>21723761
nobody gives a shit about the sexual preferences of hypersexualized vermin like you, there's no gay sex in the Iliad, project as much as you wish, it won't change anything about it
in order to sustain their army in situ they didn't call Uber-eats or go to the local supermarket or import food from Achaea either, even Thucydides talks about it, they raided the locals for supplies and they would get their booty with it too, literally; Briseides herself was war loot the Achaeans gave to Achilles after looting Lyrnessus, and he wouldn't be the only one with female servants used as concubines

[Anonymous No.21725383]

>>21723589
>Reading translated poetry feels futile.
Penguin is a prose translation.

[Anonymous No.21725392]

>>21725383
They have a few versions

[Anonymous No.21725410]

>>21723589
should have followed the chart big man

[Anonymous No.21725419]

>>21725410
Not op, but could you post the full version?

[Anonymous No.21725425]

>>21725419

[Anonymous No.21725431]

>>21723589
Try farming in a field.

[Anonymous No.21725927]

>>21723589
Listen to The Trojan War podcast, you should be fine. The narrator does an incredible job of retelling the story, in ancient Greek the bards used to recite their stories to people.

[Anonymous No.21725936]

>>21723589
Wait, Penguin is the Fagles translation right? Maybe take a break and try again tomorrow? Fagles is as easy as it gets.

[Anonymous No.21725957]

>>21725936
you may wanna find a chapter by chapter summary if you're completely unfamiliar with Greek myth. also don't be afraid to look up names that are unfamiliar to you. you got this anon.

[Anonymous No.21725963]

just change the voice in your head to that of the narrator from the movie 300 and it'll make more sense

[Anonymous No.21726689]

>>21723733

Quote line and passage that talks of homo acts. State who did the translation. If it's not a direct translation, or your using translators (((notes))), you're full of shit.

I have 100 pages left of Lattimore. I'm past where Patroklus dies. At no point when he was alive did him and Achilleus do anything more than sit at a table together. Kys

[Anonymous No.21726763]

>>21726689
I mean they did literally sleep in the same bed in book 9 I am intentionally failing to directly mention that each of them was sleeping with a concubine in this case.

[Anonymous No.21726830]

>>21723733
when losing a debate, insult your opponent until he leaves, then declare victory

[Anonymous No.21727549]

>>21723589
Just keep trying.

[Anonymous No.21728465]

>>21723589
It’s very dull and according to Socrates, it is philosophically barren. I would skip it if it weren’t a cornerstone of western lit.

[Anonymous No.21728553]

>>21723589
“Modesty is not good for a needy man.”

Out of all of Homer that is the only idea I took away.

[Anonymous No.21728597]

>>21723589
Pic is the best version. Pure kino.

Monolingual betas don't soil my post with your (you)s

[Anonymous No.21728602]

>>21723727
>No this is meme, the homo stuff was invented hundreds of years later
Cope, the greekoids were flaming homos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMs4ijjWA60

Sorry to burst your delusional idolatry of pagan shit, they were the percussors of modern degeneracy

[Anonymous No.21729868]

>>21728602
Yes but in Homer's Iliad specifically there is no overt homoerotic content. That is his point. By Plato's time the idea was that Achilleus was gay but that was not existent in Homer's time/ the Bronze age.

[Anonymous No.21729876]

>>21728602
>pagan shit, they were the percussors of modern degeneracy

This is however correct though because Homer's use of his deities as irrational and immoral actors set a bad tone for the Greeks which is why Socrates loathed him and opted to turn away poets in his ideal city.

[Anonymous No.21730181]

>>21728602
this guy is pathetic, this and the video he did on jewish iq come across as nothing more than vitriolic envy towards the far superior leather apron chad. picrel is a commenter pointing this out and him replying