The Iliad

(The Stephen Mitchell Translation)

Homer, Stephen Mitchell

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9781439163382
• eBook ISBN:
  9781451627626
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

TOLSTOY CALLED THE ILIAD A miracle; Goethe said that it always thrust him into a state of astonishment. Homer’s story is thrilling, and his Greek is perhaps the most beautiful poetry ever sung or written. But until now, even the best English translations haven’t been able to re-create the energy and simplicity, the speed, grace, and pulsing rhythm of the original.

In Stephen Mitchell’s Iliad, the epic story resounds again across 2,700 years, as if the lifeblood of its heroes Achilles and Patroclus, Hector and Priam flows in every word. And we are there with them, amid the horror and ecstasy of war, carried along by a poetry that lifts even the most devastating human events into the realm of the beautiful.

Mitchell’s Iliad is the first translation based on the work of the preeminent Homeric scholar Martin L. West, whose edition of the original Greek identifies many passages that were added after the Iliad was first written down, to the detriment of the music and the story. Omitting these hundreds of interpolated lines restores a dramatically sharper, leaner text. In addition, Mitchell’s illuminating introduction opens the epic still further to our understanding and appreciation.

Now, thanks to Stephen Mitchell’s scholarship and the power of his language, the Iliad’s ancient story comes to moving, vivid new life.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Introduction
• About the Greek Text
• About This Translation
• On the Pronunciation of Greek Names
• Map
• Book 1
• Book 2
• Book 3
• Book 4
• Book 5
• Book 6
• Book 7
• Book 8
• Book 9
• Book 11
• Book 12
• Book 13
• Book 14
• Book 15
• Book 16
• Book 17
• Book 18
• Book 19
• Book 20
• Book 21
• Book 22
• Book 23
• Book 24
• Appendix: Book 10
• Pronouncing Glossary
• Acknowledgments
• About Stephen Mitchell
• Notes on the Introductory Sections
• Notes on the Translation
• Notes on the Greek Text
• Bibliography
• Copyright