Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
Introduction
BOOK ONE - The Rage of Achilles
BOOK TWO - The Great Gathering of Armies
BOOK THREE - Helen Reviews the Champions
BOOK FOUR - The Truce Erupts in War
BOOK FIVE - Diomedes Fights the Gods
BOOK SIX - Hector Returns to Troy
BOOK SEVEN - Ajax Duels with Hector
BOOK EIGHT - The Tide of Battle Turns
BOOK NINE - The Embassy to Achilles
BOOK TEN - Marauding Through the Night
BOOK ELEVEN - Agamemnon’s Day of Glory
BOOK TWELVE - The Trojans Storm the Rampart
BOOK THIRTEEN - Battling for the Ships
BOOK FOURTEEN - Hera Outflanks Zeus
BOOK FIFTEEN - The Achaean Armies at Bay
BOOK SIXTEEN - Patroclus Fights and Dies
BOOK SEVENTEEN - Menelaus’ Finest Hour
BOOK EIGHTEEN - The Shield of Achilles
BOOK NINETEEN - The Champion Arms for Battle
BOOK TWENTY - Olympian Gods in Arms
BOOK TWENTY-ONE - Achilles Fights the River
BOOK TWENTY-TWO - The Death of Hector
BOOK TWENTY-THREE - Funeral Games for Patroclus
BOOK TWENTY-FOUR - Achilles and Priam
NOTES
TEXTUAL VARIANTS FROM THE OXFORD CLASSICAL TEXT
NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
PRONOUNCING GLOSSARY
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THE ILIAD
The Greeks believed that the Iliad and the Odyssey were composed by a single poet whom they named Homer. Nothing is known of his life. While seven Greek cities claim the honor of being his birthplace, ancient tradition places him in Ionia, located in the eastern Aegean. His birth-date is undocumented as well, though most modern scholars now place the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey in the late eighth or early seventh century B.C.
ROBERT FAGLES is Arthur W. Marks ‘19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He is the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Fagles has been elected to the Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He has translated the poems of Bacchylides. His translations of Sophocles’ Three Theban Plays, Aeschylus’ Oresteia (nominated for a National Book Award) and Homer’s Iliad (winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets, an award from The Translation Center of Columbia University, and the New Jersey Humanities Book Award) are published in Penguin Classics. His original poetry and his translations have appeared in many journals and reviews, as well as in his book of poems, I, Vincent: Poems from the Pictures of Van Gogh. Mr. Fagles was one of the associate editors of Maynard Mack’s Twickenham Edition of Alexander Pope’s Iliad and Odyssey, and, with George Steiner, edited Homer: A Collection of Critical Essays. Mr. Fagles’ most recent work is a translation of Homer’s Odyssey, available from Penguin.
BERNARD KNOX is Director Emeritus of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. His essays and reviews have appeared in numerous publications and in 1978 he won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. His works include Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles’ Tragic Hero and His Time; The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Trageay; Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient Theatre; Essays Ancient and Modern (awarded the 1989 PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award); The Oldest Dead White European Males and Other Reflections on the Classics; and Backing into the Future: The Classical Tradition and its Renewal. Mr. Knox is the editor of The Norton Book of Classical Literature, and has also collaborated with Robert Fagles on the Odyssey and The Three Theban Plays.
PENGUIN BOOKS
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Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in the United States of America by
Penguin Books USA Inc., 1990
Published in Penguin Books 1991
Copyright © Robert Fagles, 1990
Introduction and notes copyright © Bernard Knox, 1990
Maps copyright © Anita Karl and James Kemp, 1990
All rights reserved
Books 3, 18 and 22 of this version of the Iliad appeared originally in Grand Street, Book 6 in TriQuarterly. Part of Bernard Knox’s Introduction appeared in Grand Street.
The illustrations on display pages are traditional Greek motifs, redrawn by Ann Gold.
This translation in its printed form is designed for the reading public only. All dramatic rights in it are fully protected by copyrights, and no public or private performances—professional or amateur—and no public readings for profit may be given without the written permission of the author and the payment of a royalty. Anyone disregarding the author’s rights renders himself liable to prosecution. Communications should be addressed to the author’s representative, Georges Borchardt, Inc., 136 East 57th Street, New York, New York 10022, U.S.A.
Homer.
[Iliad. English]
The Iliad / Homer ; translated by Robert Fagles;
introduction and notes by Bernard Knox.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Achilles (Greek mythology)—Poetry. 2. Trojan War—Poetry.
I. Fagles, Robert. II. Knox, Bernard MacGregor Walker. III. Title.
eISBN : 978-1-101-15363-5
PA4025.A2F33 1990
883’.01—dc20 89-70695