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By Emily Wilson, professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is working off the oldest written material available, her translations are line-for-line in Iambic pentameter but in a pretty salty modern English. The Iliad begins with the conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles over respect and the possession of certain spoils of war, including especially the woman Briseis. Achilles is refusing to fight but the war goes on, lots of individual combat and the backstories of the various combatants, many of whom, including Achilles are demigods descended in part from gods or goddesses (for all the good it does them). At least half the book is, like the original oral material, graphic descriptions of hand-to-hand combat describing the weapons used and the damage done with them.
When Hector starts coming out to fight, things start going south for the Greeks, but Achilles stays in his camp. Finally his partner, Patroclus, borrows armor and weapons to go out and meet the Trojans. Patroclus does pretty well until he goes up against Hector, who kills him. Achillles patches things up with Agamemnon, recovers his armor (IIRC) and in an epic fight, kills Hector. Then he defiles the corpse by dragging it around the walls of Troy behind his chariot, day after day. The gods intervene to prevent the corpse from rotting. At the end of the Story, old King Priam goes out alone at night to beg Achilles to return his son, Hector' body.
There is no wooden horse, no sacking or troy or rape of the Trojan women, no flight to the west of Aeneas and the Trojan survivors in the remaining ships. It's a hell of a story.
The Odyssey begins in media res when Odysseus' grown son, worried about the "suitors" who have taken over the palace takes ship, escapes really, visits old King Nestor for advice. There are flashbacks to Odysseus' story, his travels and how he lost everything, finally washing ashore on the island of Scheria, stark naked. The women take care of him, in the same way that Athena comes to his aid when he needs it. When he gets to his home, only his old dog recognizes him. He kills the fifty suitors as well as any of the serving-girls who might have slept with or been raped by them.
I really got into the rhythm of the verse, letting it carry me on. Wilson doesn't pull any punches, and you really get a feeling for those people and what made them tick. Odysseus of the many-branched mind is (to me) by far the most interesting of those people. He met the gods and the spirits of the dead and contested with them - no9 divine powers, no magic, just his rational mind. He was the first modern man.
I've been away from this site for a while, I wanted to put this review and a couple of others up here, especially for Art. I see is no longer with us. He would have had something to say about these stories.
jn
When Hector starts coming out to fight, things start going south for the Greeks, but Achilles stays in his camp. Finally his partner, Patroclus, borrows armor and weapons to go out and meet the Trojans. Patroclus does pretty well until he goes up against Hector, who kills him. Achillles patches things up with Agamemnon, recovers his armor (IIRC) and in an epic fight, kills Hector. Then he defiles the corpse by dragging it around the walls of Troy behind his chariot, day after day. The gods intervene to prevent the corpse from rotting. At the end of the Story, old King Priam goes out alone at night to beg Achilles to return his son, Hector' body.
There is no wooden horse, no sacking or troy or rape of the Trojan women, no flight to the west of Aeneas and the Trojan survivors in the remaining ships. It's a hell of a story.
The Odyssey begins in media res when Odysseus' grown son, worried about the "suitors" who have taken over the palace takes ship, escapes really, visits old King Nestor for advice. There are flashbacks to Odysseus' story, his travels and how he lost everything, finally washing ashore on the island of Scheria, stark naked. The women take care of him, in the same way that Athena comes to his aid when he needs it. When he gets to his home, only his old dog recognizes him. He kills the fifty suitors as well as any of the serving-girls who might have slept with or been raped by them.
I really got into the rhythm of the verse, letting it carry me on. Wilson doesn't pull any punches, and you really get a feeling for those people and what made them tick. Odysseus of the many-branched mind is (to me) by far the most interesting of those people. He met the gods and the spirits of the dead and contested with them - no9 divine powers, no magic, just his rational mind. He was the first modern man.
I've been away from this site for a while, I wanted to put this review and a couple of others up here, especially for Art. I see is no longer with us. He would have had something to say about these stories.
jn
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