May 06, 2004

• I like Lang, but I might be biased because a) I really like his Fairy Books (I read the Red, the Blue, the Lilac, the Yellow, the Grey and the Green) b)Pope bored the heck out of me when I last read his version of the Iliad.
• If you want a sample of Lang's writing, check this collection of the Fairy Books.
• Thanks, Alnedra, I will. I downloaded the Lang translation on your recommendation and it turns out it's actually translated by Leaf, Lang and Myers. We'll see how it goes.
• Acck! A thousand pardons, oh Monkeybashi! *prostrates in abject repentence* Really sorry. Never noticed that Lang didn't do it alone. Happy reading!
• No, no, I meant that I didn't notice -- Project Gutenberg listed Lang as the only translator.
• Hey, what about Robert Fagles?!? He's so much more visceral and fun than dry-as-dust Pope and Butler. Lang's version is dumbed-down a bit too much, and as for Derby, well, it's best to avoid 19th century translations altogether. Richard Lattimore's and Robert Fitzgerald's translations are standard texts, aimed at students, so more accessable. Stanley Lombardo has a terrific version designed as performance, and is best read aloud. Oh, you said "E" Books. Sorry. Got a bit carried away. Just trust me on this: the more modern translation is the one you'll finish. It might be worth your while to get a print copy.
• Surely there's a comic book version? As we read in Keats: Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne, Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Til I a comic book version was sold. "On First Looking into Buying a Comic Book version of Homer" (1816)
• Lattimore. Richmond. Please.
• If you see the E V Rieu translation (was the Penguin Classics translation in the UK), avoid it like the plague. Horrible, horrible 1950's schoolboy English. It's gut-churningly bad.
• Horrible, horrible 1950's schoolboy English "I say chaps!" said Agememnon, "shall we raise the topless towers of Ilium? I've got a free half-period." "Wizzard!" cried Achilles. Suddenly they heard a sound, and the boys all looked round at Menelaus. "Oi, Menelaus! Are you blubbing?" Agememnon asked, cruelly. "Am not!" his brother replied, drying his eyes. "Its just that rotter Hector! I saw him at the tuck-shop - and he called me a sissy!"
• Later, they all sat down to a House dinner of sausages with lashings of chocolate custard gravy. Hurrah faw Gwiffindaw! Yo team!
• Read each version. Don't piss about. You won't get a feel for the original anyway, so read 'em all.
• I would strongly recommend Christopher Logue's version, which has been appearing in instalments over the last decade or so: Kings (Books 1-2), The Husbands (Books 3-4), and now a collected edition, War Music (Books 1-4 and 16-19), which is the one you should get hold of. It's not a literal translation; not even a free translation, really; it's a poetic retelling of the story. But don't let that put you off. It is superb. Best of all, try and get hold of the recording of Logue reading the poem. I don't have the CD, but I have heard extracts broadcast on BBC Radio, and it is truly spellbinding.
• What, is Chapman not online? He's my fave. There's another (only print, sorry), which I really liked, v. modern, liberally fucked with salt, I mean salted with fucks, plus CAPITAL LETTERS sometimes when people were VERY EMOTIONAL. Reccommended. Had that famous D-Day picture on the front, looking out from the troop boat on Normandy, G.I.s all up to their necks in Atlantic in the aerly morn.
• Here are some reviews of the Logue version, with some thrilling extracts to give you a taste of what the poem is like. Also, doing a little googling, I find that Logue's version has received the coveted languagehat seal of approval. And if that won't persuade you to read it, nothing will.
• Heh. Umm, for "raise" please read "raze". Oops. SlightlyFoxed: Logue's version goes beyond the snippet of the war recounted in Homer (I pre-zoom)? On preview: oops(2), better follow that link!
• Lattimore's good if austere. Robert Graves' The Anger of Achilles is worth peeking into if you happen across a copy --Seems to be in print yet but coupled with Homer's Daughter. And if you're in the mood for a very wild trip through through classical mythology, try Graves' The Greek Myths, too.
• "I say chaps!" said Agememnon, "shall we raise the topless towers of Ilium? I've got a free half-period." That's closer to how it actually reads than you'd probably like to think!
• Hey wow, I independantly agreed with Langy-poppy-hattifer! I must be smart!
• I'll second either Fagles or Lattimore. I learned the Iliad w/ Fagles, and fell in love with it in a performance based on Lattimores. So, either one should be great.
• Personally, I find Lattimore rather boring -- Fitzgerald has more true poetry in him (though his Odyssey is better, as everyone says). Lattimore's definitely accurate, but you want someone who will grip you enough to carry you through a longish book. I'd drop by a bookstore and read enough of the available ones to decide which is for you. Don't worry about comparative reviews; you're the only one who counts here. Obviously, I'm nuts about Logue, but I wouldn't recommend him as one's only exposure to Homer. (For one thing, he's only done bits and pieces.) Do read him, though! And why the hell isn't Chapman online? Do something about this, somebody!
• For reading, it's all about the Fagles. Lattimore is kinda boring to read.
• re comic books: Age of Bronze. Never read it, but Shanower's decent - he broke with dead-eye pastiches of the Oz stories.
• Also in that parody of the opening I posted to the blue, I linked to a Thos. Hobbes. translation. Otherwise I think that's the balance of English texts avaialble online.
• Personally, I find Lattimore rather boring Gotta disagree, hat. He may not be as much of a poet as Fitzgerald, but he's extremely competent (see also his always-moving Oresteia in the Chicago Complete Greek Tragedies), and I find it to be plenty lively. And Lattimore feels more like the Greek to me. Re: Fagles—I had a teacher long ago call him the MTV Homer and that prejudice stuck with me, when it's only somewhat deserved. It's definitely the definitive Homer for my generation, for better or worse. Chapman's defnitely the most fun.
• Gotta disagree, hat You're disagreeing that I find Lattimore boring? Intrepid of you. Now get that probe outta my skull. Seriously, I take care to phrase it that way rather than "L. is boring" precisely because that's always a personal judgment, and I dislike the practice of masking one's personal judgments as objective facts. I would never deny that L. is either competent or true to the Greek. It's just that I can't read him for long stretches without nodding off. If you react otherwise, great.
• (Belated) mad props to SlightlyFoxed for turning me on to Logue, as I have just purchased War Music and I lurves it. Thanks!