"Cliff Notes - Iliad, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

of years, and recited and memorized by one generation of poets
after another before Homer took them in hand. After all, in
Homer's time, writing was used mostly for inventories and
business transactions. Recitation was the accepted means of
relating myth and history.

The Iliad was part of a group of ancient poems known as the
Epic Cycle, which dealt with the history of the Trojan War and
the events surrounding it. Homer probably had at his fingertips
most of these stories and characters, ready-made. His genius
lay in choosing to focus on the story of Achilleus and in
bringing a tragic depth to the story of the battle for Troy.
Homer was writing about events that took place four or five
hundred years before his own time, events already enlarged by
the glamor of the past. However tall Achilleus and Hektor
actually were, by Homer's time their size was legendary, rather
like that of comic book superheroes. For the Greeks, these
heroes represented the ideals on which their civilization was
based. At the same time, they symbolized elements of the human
psyche, with its yearning for nobility and honor.

The world of the Iliad is based on history but grows into
metaphor: we must look beneath the facts to its deeper meaning.
Archaeologists have indeed discovered the remains of a supposed
Troy on the coast of Turkey and the majestic ruins of palaces
and tombs in Mykenai on the plains of Greece. Through the lines
of the Iliad, however, the Greeks and Trojans still live for us,
echoing in the human imagination.

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THE ILIAD: A COMPARISON OF TRANSLATIONS

Over the centuries there have been many translations of
Homer's two great epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. While the
translations of course differ, none is more accurate than
another. Each translator's understanding of Homer is influenced
by his own personality and the time in which he lived. Some
translations are in verse, others in prose. The quotations in
this guide are from Richmond Lattimore's prose version of the
Iliad (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951). This
translation is easy for modern readers to understand and comes
close to what Homer was saying.

It is interesting to compare the various translations. Here
are four versions of some lines from Book II.

Say, Virgins, seated round the Throne Divine,

All-knowing Goddesses! Immortal Nine!