larryhammer | "a billion words ago/they sang a song of leaving/an echo from the chorus/will call them back again" (Reply)

My first Iliad was Pope's -- a folio volume from my parents' bookshelves with a fine engraving each chapter. I was in my early teens and struggled with the verse -- I wasn't much for reading poetry until later high school -- and remember little about it: it was the story I was after, which turned out to be a small slice of a war written on a grand scale.

Achilles' Wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes unnumber'd, heav'nly Goddess, sing!
That Wrath which hurl'd to Pluto's gloomy reign
The Souls of mighty Chiefs untimely slain;
Whose limbs unbury'd on the naked shore
Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore:
Since Great Achilles and Atrides strove,
Such was the sov'reign doom, and such the will of Jove!
Declare, O Muse! in what ill-fated hour
Sprung the fierce strife, from what offended pow'r?

My second Iliad was Lattimore's, in early grad school.

Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilleus
and its destruction, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians,
hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls
of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting
of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished
since that time when first there stood in division of conflict
Atreus' son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus.
What god was it then set them together in bitter collision?

I liked it, and its sweep of line, but not as much as my third (and eventually fourth) Iliad: Fagels'. That had language that caught me.

Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles.
What god drove them to fight with such a fury?

Caught, but not catches -- I've read parts of it again since, but not all the way through. There's something not quite there for the me of now.

So I'm thinking of making my fifth Iliad Chapman's. Going by the first few pages, it has Pope's grandeur, Lattimore's sweep, something of Fagels' art, and another thing: Elizabethan verve.

Achilles' baneful wrath—resound, O goddess—that impos'd
Infinite sorrows on the Greeks, and many brave souls loos'd
From breasts heroic; sent them far, to that invisible cave
That no light comforts; and their limbs to dogs and vultures gave:
To all which Jove's will gave effect, from whom first strife begun
Betwixt Atrides, king of men, and Thetis' godlike son.
What god gave Eris their command, and op'd that fighting vein?

His handling of rhymed fourteeners is, I'm surprised to admit, better than Golding's in Metamorphoses. Yeah, this is a modern-spelling edition, but I suspect I can cope with that, especially since it also has his Odyssey.

But I'm still thinking about this. After all, I did finally track down a recent printing of Pope for the reading. And I've the rest of Lucan to finish, even aside from the doorstop tagging this post -- it's too soon to commit to a mountain in Darien as well.

---L.