Synopses & Reviews
An accessible Iliad for twenty-first-century readers
A classic of Western literature for three millennia, Homerand#8217;s Iliad captivates modern readersand#151;as it did ancient listenersand#151;with its tale of gods and warriors at the siege of Troy. Now Herbert Jordanand#8217;s line-for-line translation brilliantly renders the original Greek into English blank verseand#151;the poetic form most closely resembling our spoken language.
Raising the bar set by Richmond Lattimore in 1951, Jordan employs a pleasing five-beat meter and avoids unnecessary filler. Whereas other verse renditions are longer than the original, owing to the translatorsand#8217; indulgence in personal poetics, Jordan avoids and#147;line inflation.and#8221; The result, an economical translation, captures the force and vigor of the original poem.
E. Christian Kopffand#8217;s introduction to this volume sets the stage and credits Jordan with conveying the action and movement of the Iliad in and#147;contemporary language and a supple verse.and#8221; This new Iliad offers twenty-first-century readers the thrill of a timeless epic and affords instructors a much-needed alternative for literature surveys.
Synopsis
An accessible Iliad for twenty-first-century readers
About the Author
Herbert Jordan, an attorney, is an independent scholar of Greek. He resides in Roxbury, New York.
E. Christian Kopff, Associate Director of the Honors Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is the editor of a Greek edition of Euripidesand#39; Bacchae.