Sing, goddess, the rage of Achilles
I was so happy that I did my taxes today (and that I'm apparently getting a nice wad of cash back) that I picked up a copy of the gorgeous Deluxe Edition of Robert Fagles' translation of The Iliad; I won't be able to really start reading it for a while, but I've loved The Iliad since high school and a while back I read a review of this translation that makes me eager to get to it. And since the copy was slightly banged up and on sale in the UC, it was only $7.
Strangely, this is what I'm reading right now! I had a copy when it first came out, but I made the error of loaning it to the wrong person; luckily my mother-in-law gave me a copy of both this and his Odyssey translation for Christmas.
Fagles personalizes the violence of the Iliad more than Fitzgerald or Lattimore; his Homer is a little more of the moment, visceral and matter-of-fact in the horrible truth of how these heroes die. The three translations I've read all have their strengths and weaknesses, but I didn't realize how much I missed the Fagles until I didn't have it.
Posted by
Erik |
7:35 AM
Wow, that's a coincidence. I know I've read either the Fitzgerald or the Lattimore before, but I can't remember which - glad to hear from someone else that the Fagles is as good as I've read.
Posted by
Ian |
12:07 PM