Product details
- ISBN 9780140444445
- Weight: 396g
- Dimensions: 131 x 197mm
- Publication Date: 27 Aug 1987
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
'The best modern prose translation of The Iliad' Robin Lane Fox, The Times
The first of the world's great tragedies, The Iliad centres on the pivotal four days towards the end of the ten-year war between the Greeks and the Trojans. In a series of dramatic set pieces, it follows the story of the humiliation of Achilleus at the hands of Agamemnon and his slaying of Hektor: a barbarous act with repercussions that ultimately determine the fate of Troy. The Iliad not only paints an intimate picture of individual experience, but also offers a universal perspective in which human loss and suffering are set against a vast and unpitying divine background where fickle, quarrelsome gods decide the fate of men.
Translated with an Introduction by Martin Hammond
The Greeks attributed both the Iliad and the Odyssey to a single poet whom they named Homer. Nothing is known of his life, though the main ancient tradition made him a native of the island of Chios in east Aegean. His date too is uncertain: most modern scholars place the composition of the Iliad in the second half of the eighth century BC.
Martin Hammond has taught in England and in Greece. He has also translated the Odyssey. He is now Headmaster of Tonbridge School
