After quite a long break between reading any of my Kilobook items, I’ve begun reading the Iliad. I’ve acquired from Project Gutenberg a copy of William Cowper’s 1791 translation into blank verse.
I’ve read the first book, and I must say: it is spectacular. The animosity between Achilles and Agamemnon is delicious, and the verse has a great deal of energy, especially as they argue.
One thing that surprised me is that I found surprisingly few illustrations of the Iliad, when I searched. At least, few that suited me. Doubtless scenes from the Iliad have been drawn or painted hundreds or thousands of times over the years, but my first searches have been less than satisfactory.
So, in the first book of the Iliad, we learn that Apollo has brought a plague down upon the Grecian army, and it is revealed that in order to appease him, Agamemnon must return the captured Chryseis to her father, who is Apollo’s priest, together with an appropriate sacrifice. Agamemnon will only agree if he is compensated for his loss, but Achilles is angry at this, decrying Agamemnon’s greed. Agamemnon then declares that he will return Chryseis, and take Briseis, Achilles’s ‘prize’, as his compensation.
Enraged at this treatment, Achilles would kill Agamemnon, but his hand is stayed by Pallas. Instead, he declares he will not serve Agamemnon any longer, and begs his mother, Thetis, to ask a boon of Jove, that he would aid the Trojans in order to teach Agamemnon the value of Achilles, who he treated so poorly. Thetis does this, and extracts a promise from Jove to exalt Achilles above all others, and give success to Troy.
The first book consists of about 750 lines, so it’s a fairly quick read. I had feared, initially, that I might find it difficult to read a translation that was more than 200 years old, and, indeed, when first I began to read it, though, I read too quickly, and, unused to Cowper’s style, lost the thread of the story a bit. I stopped and then reread from the beginning more slowly, and found that Cowper’s translation was very understandable. I wonder if some of the other translations are equally intelligible. I would like, eventually, to read Pope’s 1715 translation and Chapman’s 1615 translation, as well. I think I will first read Cowper’s translation of the Odyssey, though, before beginning on any new translations.
This post is, I guess, much shorter than is usual for me, on account of the brevity of the first book of the Iliad, but there will be 23 more posts on the Iliad before I’ve read it all, so I suppose it will all work out.
