The Iliad of Homer

Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus son Achilleus / and its devastation. For sixty years, thats how Homer has begun the Iliad in English, in Richmond Lattimores faithful translationthe gold standard for generations of students and general readers.This longawaited new edition of Lattimores Iliad is designed to bring the book into the twentyfirst centurywhile leaving the poem as firmly rooted in ancient Greece as ever. Lattimores elegant, fluent verseswith their memorably phrased heroic epithets and remarkable fidelity to the Greekremain unchanged, but classicist Richard Martin has added a wealth of supplementary materials designed to aid new generations of readers. A new introduction sets the poem in the wider context of Greek life, warfare, society, and poetry, while linebyline notes at the back of the volume offer explanations of unfamiliar terms, information about the Greek gods and heroes, and literary appreciation. A glossary and maps round out the book.The result is a volume that actively invites readers into Homers poem, helping them to understand fully the worlds in which he and his heroes livedand thus enabling them to marvel, as so many have for centuries, at Hektor and Ajax, Paris and Helen, and the devastating rage of Achilleus.