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Lombardo's First Translation Of The Iliad

1625 Words7 Pages

It can sometimes seem disorienting to walk into a bookshop with the intention of checking out a copy of the Iliad only to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of translations of the single epic. While each translation of Homer’s epic follows the same storyline, the battle between the Achaeans and Trojans over Helen, the siege of Troy, and the fateful death of Hector by Achilles’ hand, the Iliad is much more than just its intriguing plot. Originally written in ancient Greek, the Iliad includes many colloquialisms from that time period, such as epithets and unrhymed dactylic hexameter, so it can be translated quite differently depending on the background and style of each translator. This can result in each translation connoting different perceptions …show more content…

The Goddess is asked to sing of Achilles’ murder and black rage that brought many ills to the Achaeans and it began “with the clash between Agamemnon-/ The Greek warlord- and godlike Achilles” (Lombardo, translator. Iliad, 1.8-9). Out of all the translations, Lombardo’s tells the simplest version without bogging readers down with excess adverbs or confusing language. What is also important is his specific usage of words, powerful due to their simplistic, but efficient modulation: a “black and murderous” rage, “pitched countless souls” into “Hades’ dark”, and lastly, when he refers to Achilles as “godlike”. Other translations describe Achilles as “great” or “brilliant”, however, Lombardo uses the word “godlike” and is the only one to do so. This brings to mind how Achilles is indeed partly divine, as he is the son of a mortal father, Peleus, and sea goddess, Thetis. This deliberate use of diction illustrates the significance of remembering that Achilles is more than a mere mortal because the gods certainly do not forget throughout the epic. They honor him and support him not only due to Zeus’ love and desire for his mother, but also because he is a partly divine figure with exceptional talent as a warrior. Whereas, if Achilles were mortal, the gods may not have supported him as the natural winner as

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