In his work On the Translation of Homer, the great Victorian art critic Matthew Arnold stated:

[T]he translator of Homer should above all be penetrated by a sense of four qualities of his author:—that he be eminently rapid; that he is eminently plain and direct both in the evolution of his thought and in the expression of it, that is, both in his syntax and in his words; that he is eminently plain and direct in the substance of his thought, that is, in his matter and ideas; and, finally, that he is eminently noble. (Arnold 9-10)

Does this translation of Homer’s Iliad possess all four of these qualities? Is it a swift read that uses plain and direct language, and tells the story in a straightforward manner while maintaining the “nobility” and “epic” quality of the original? That is not for me to say. I can say, however, that although this translation has the same number of lines as Homer’s original—15,693—it was not my intention to create a literal, line-for-line translation. Instead, I wanted to strike a balance between staying as close as possible to Homer’s original Greek while still maintaining English syntax and overall readability, especially for first-time readers. If these two things were in conflict with one another—that is, if staying close to the Greek meant making the translation more difficult to understand—then I generally sided with readability.

A small example of this occurs in book 16 (lines 139-144), which describes Patroclus, Achilles’ closest companion, arming for battle. First, here is the passage in Homer’s original Greek:

εἵλετο δ’ ἄλκιμα δοῦρε, τά οἱ παλάμηφιν ἀρήρει.
ἔγχος δ’ οὐχ ἕλετ’ οἶον ἀμύμονος Αἰακίδαο
βριθὺ μέγα στιβαρόν: τὸ μὲν οὐ δύνατ’ ἄλλος Ἀχαιῶν
πάλλειν, ἀλλά μιν οἶος ἐπίστατο πῆλαι Ἀχιλλεὺς
Πηλιάδα μελίην, τὴν πατρὶ φίλῳ πόρε Χείρων
Πηλίου ἐκ κορυφῆς, φόνον ἔμμεναι ἡρώεσσιν.

In Samuel Butler’s 1898 translation, the passage reads:

He grasped two redoubtable spears that suited his hands, but he did not take the spear of noble Achilles, so stout and strong, for none other of the Achaeans could wield it, though Achilles could do so easily. This was the ashen spear from Mount Pelion, which Chiron had cut upon a mountain top and had given to Peleus, wherewith to deal out death among heroes.

In the Loeb Classical edition of The Iliad, translated into prose by A.T. Murray in 1924 and revised by William F. Wyatt in 1999, the passage reads:

and he took two valiant spears that fitted his grasp. Only the spear of the incomparable son of Aeacus he took not, the spear heavy and huge and strong; this no other of the Achaeans could wield, but Achilles alone was skilled to wield it, the Pelian spear of ash, that Cheiron had given to his dear father from the peak of Pelion, to be used for the slaying of warriors.

In Richard Lattimore’s 1951 poetic translation, the passage reads:

He took up two powerful spears that fitted his hand’s grip,
only he did not take the spear of blameless Aiakides,
huge, heavy, thick, which no one else of all the Achaeans
could handle, but Achilleus alone knew how to wield it;
the Pelian ash spear which Cheiron had brought to his father
from high on Pelion to be death for fighters. (355)

In Robert Fagles more modernized poetic translation from 1990, the passage reads:

and he took two rugged spears that fit his grip.
And Achilles’ only weapon Patroclus did not take
was the great man’s spear, weighted, heavy, though.
No other Achaean fighter could heft that shaft,
only Achilles had the skill to wield it well:
Pelian ash it was, a gift to his father Peleus
presented by Chiron once, hewn on Pelion’s crest
to be the death of heroes. (417)

In Stanley Lombardo’s 1997 translation, it reads:

He took two spears of the proper heft,
But left behind the massive battle pike
Of Aeacus’ incomparable grandson.
No one but Achilles could handle this spear,
Made of ash, which the centaur Chiron
Had brought down from Mount Pelion and given
To Achilles’ father to be the death of heroes.

Finally, in this translation, the passage reads:

Finally, he took two strong spears that fit his grasp
but left the large, heavy, and powerful spear
of Aeacus’ noble grandson, for no other Achaean
was skilled enough to wield it but Achilles:
an ashen spear from Pelion’s peaks that Chiron
gave his dear father, a gift for slaying heroes.

There are 44 words in the original Greek passage, 66 in Butler’s, 71 in the Loeb Classical edition, 62 in Lattimore, 67 in Fables, 51 in Lombardo, and 52 in this translation. In other words, this translation is shorter than all but Lombardo’s and closer in length to the original. That does not, however, mean this translation is more accurate—merely more economical.

Lattimore’s translation hews extremely close to the Greek original; each line corresponds more or less to the original Greek line. Most of the other translations are also fairly consistent with the Greek, in that they maintain the basic line-by-line structure and include much of the repetition found in the original. This translation, like Lombardo’s, eliminates some of the repetition that works in Homer’s original but reads awkwardly in English, and rearranges some word order to improve clarity and readability.

For example, the first line is basically identical in each translation: Patroclus picked up two spears. The next few lines of the other translations mostly follow the Greek, first noting that Patroclus did not take Achilles’ spear, then noting that spear’s length and weight and the fact that, of all the Achaeans, only Achilles could wield such a weapon. This translation includes all of this information but reverses the order a bit, putting the “large, heavy, and powerful” aspects of the spear ahead of the owner’s name. This change was made for the sake of readability because putting the description of the spear (the reasons why Patroclus did not pick it up) in the third line and not the second renders it an awkward afterthought between the two mentions of Achilles rather than the crucial piece of information that it actually is.

Similarly, in the end of the original Greek passage, Mount Pelion is mentioned twice—once to describe the type of wood the spear is made from and again to identify where the famous centaur Chiron (presumably) made the weapon. Most of the other translations also mention Pelion twice, but this translation (like Lattimore’s and Lombardo’s) only mentions it once and rearranges the order a bit by mentioning mount Pelion before Chiron. Again, this is done for brevity, taking several pieces of information from the original (naming the spear, identifying where the weapon came from, identifying it as a gift from Chiron to Peleus, and noting its use to kill heroes) and combining them in a clear and simple manner.

There are a few pieces of information not found in the original that are added by some of the translations. First, Homer’s original does not state outright that Chiron made the weapon; it merely states that it came from Mt. Pelion and was given to Peleus by Chiron. However, Butler’s translation notes that Chiron “had cut” the weapon on the mountain, and the Fagles translation notes the weapon was “hewn” on the mountain. The other translations, mine included, leave this information out.

Likewise, Homer does not, in this passage, state that Chiron is a centaur, but this fact is included in Lombardo’s translation. This added information certainly helps those who might not know who Chiron is, but since it was not included in the original Greek, I left it out, as did the other translations I cited. Chiron was previously named in books 6 and 11, and in book 11 (11.831), Chiron is indeed identified as a centaur; hence, the repetition of the information, while helpful, was not, in my mind, necessary.

There is, however, another reason why I did not think adding “centaur” to this passage was necessary: unlike all the other translations mentioned above, my translation was written in the twenty-first century, in the age of Google and Wikipedia. Facts like this one are just a click away.

In fact, I have included links to Wikipedia articles on most of the character and place names mentioned throughout the epic. I only added these links at the first mention of each name—so the link to the Wikipedia page on Chiron can be found in book 6 but not in the subsequent mentions of the centaur. For those not reading the book digitally, I have also included a standard glossary of people and places at the end. The information in the glossary is obviously not as comprehensive as that found online, but it should suffice for most readers.

***

The names used in this translation are the ones Homer uses—and Homer’s use of names can be tricky. Not only does Homer use different names to describe the same person or the same people, but he also regularly substitutes names with patronymics (“son of__”) or epithets (like “ox-eyed”).

Homeric names conform to Indo-European patterns: one name only for men and women, but a patronymic (like “son of Atreus”) used in public. Men were usually “son of” their father, but often married women were referred to as “wife of __”; Helen, for example is referred to as “wife of Paris,” though Paris was also referred to as “husband of Helen,” which is considered an insult to the least-liked character in the Iliad.

Since Greek uses a different alphabet than English, individual and place names in Homer are spelled a variety of ways depending upon the translation. Many modern translations utilize spellings that adhere closer to the Greek original words rather than Latinized names of the past. For example, in Richard Lattimore’s translation, Achilles is spelled Achilleus (closer to the Greek original, Ἀχιλλεύς), Ajax is Aias (Αἴας), Hector is Hektor (Ἕκτορ), and so on. For this translation, I have decided to stick to the more common spellings of names in order to make the reading of this work as simple as possible, particularly for students new to Homer. Almost without exception, these are the spellings found in both A.T. Murray’s Loeb Classical translation and the translation of Robert Fagles. Hence, in my translation, Achilles is Achilles, Ajax is Ajax, and Hector is Hector.

With all this in mind, here are a few additional notes to make reading easier:^[1]

• Homer never refers to the Greeks as Greek. They are, instead, called Achaeans, Argives, Danaans, Hellenes, or Panhellenes. Their most common epithets are “well-greaved” or “of the hollowed ships.”

• The Trojans are generally called Trojans, but Troy itself is often referred to as Ilios (or Ilium or Ilion). The most common epithets used for the Trojans is “tamers of horses”

• Achilles is often described as “son of Peleus,” and he is also described as “swift-footed” and “godlike.”

• Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus are both “son(s) of Atreus.”

• Agamemnon, as the high king of the Achaeans, is called “ruler of many lands,” “ruler of men,” and “lord of men” (among others). Menelaus is called “great shouter” or “dear to Ares” (god of war).

• No one has more epithets than Odysseus, but the most common are “wise,” “clever,” “cunning,” and “resourceful.”

• Paris is generally called Alexander and only occasionally Paris.

• Numerous mortals are referred to as “godlike”—including Achilles, Odysseus, Helen, and Agamemnon—while others are called “beloved of Zeus,” “child of Zeus,” or “dear to Zeus.”

• Among the gods, Apollo is described as “Phoebus” (the bright or pure), “free-shooter,” or “sharpshooter.”

• Zeus goes by many names but the most common are “son of Cronos,” “cloud-gatherer,” “loud thundering,” and “far-seeing.”

• Hera is often “ox-eyed” and “white-armed”; Athena is “daughter of Zeus,” “Pallas,” and “owl-eyed”; and Aphrodite is “fair,” “heavenly,” and “golden.”