McLaren, John (1995) Literature and culture - Homer and the epic. UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

Abstract

Numbers of excellent translations make Homer's work available in modern English. The prose version by E.V. Rieu, published by Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1946, is the most popular, and enables us to read the work much like a modern novel. However, verse translations give a better idea of the tone and rhythm of a work intended to be heard. All quotations here are from the translations by Robert Fitzgerald, published by Doubleday Anchor, New York: The Iliad, 1975 [1974] and The Odyssey, 1963 [1961]. It is worth comparing passages from these versions with any translation you may be using: the differences often help us come closer to the original. I have used Fitzgerald's transliterations of the spelling of Greek names in the quotation, but have followed traditional English spelling in my own text.

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