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The Iliad

A New Translation

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About this listen

 Man seduces another's wife then kidnaps her. The husband and his brother get a gang together to steal her back and take revenge. The woman regrets being seduced and wants to escape, whilst the man's entourage resent the position they have been placed in. Yet the battle lines have been drawn and there is no going back...

Not the plot of the latest Hollywood thriller, but the basis of the ILIAD - the Greek classic that details the war between the Greeks and the Trojans after the kidnapping of Helen of Sparta. Based on the recent, superb, M.L. West edition of the Greek, this ILIAD is more readable and moving than any previous version. Thanks to the scholarship and poetic power of the highly acclaimed Stephen Mitchell, this new translation recreates the energy and simplicity, the speed, grace, and continual thrust and pull of the original, while the ILIAD's ancient story bursts vividly into life. This edition also includes book 10 as an appendix, making it indispensible for students and lay readers alike.

Read by Alfred Molina

(p) 2011 Simon & Schuster©2011 Stephen Mitchell Ancient Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature Classics Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary History & Criticism Poetry War & Military Ancient Greece Ancient History Greece Marriage Mythology War

Critic reviews

The verse is well-forged and clean-limbed, pulsing along in an unobtrusive pentameter...Mitchell has re-energised it for a new generation
A sturdy, muscular, and nuanced translation that will surely bring many new readers to this great work, "one of the monuments of our own magnificence", in Stephen Mitchell's happy formulation (John Banville)
The story is still as urgent as a sword through the buttock (of which there are several), the exquisite efficiency of Mitchell's language often takes your breath away. (Bella Todd)
All stars
Most relevant
I love this Audiobook and have listened to it twice through. It's well read and a good translation.

This book is basically ancient Greek people and gods having a huge ruck.

A classic!

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Looking to be engulfed in an amazing story well here’s the one for you the Iliad by Homer is a fantastic work and inspiring

A true classic

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What about Alfred Molina’s performance did you like?

The reader is engaging, although occasionally can be difficult to understand, some sections of dialogue are read quickly for effect. The differentiation between the various charecter voices was not especially noticable.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It was gripping and heartwrenching

Any additional comments?

I don't know what I expected, I have read around the Illiad for years. I have read books on the history, I have seen documentaries, I have read novels which feature the charecters, I am a huge fan of Brad Pitt, but for some reason I had never found the courage to read the actual book. I guess I thought in might be dense and complex, or worse, just plain dull. I didn't want to risk disappontment. And then there is the question of which translation to read, there are many. If I choose the wrong one would it put me off Homer for life? I had to do a bit of research, I decided to go for an audiobook so trawled through the samples. The Stephen Mitchell translation appealed the most. It is perhaps one of the less poetic translations but it is clear, vivid and easy to follow. There is also a few introductuary chapters which discuss different aspects of the story, the are concise and interesting and added a lot to my understanding of the story.
This is a great story though, written over 2.5 thousand years ago its themes are still relevant today, I know everyone says that, you can peer back through time and get an impression of real people - there loves and hopes and fears. The horror and gore of the battles is vividly described, and then we a whisked away to a lone woods man felling a tree by a river, or a lion staking a fawn. It is a powerful and emotional book. It is extraodinary for what it is, but also and most importantly an entertaining and gripping read.

This book is actually extraodinary.

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Pitch perfect narration from Alfred Molina makes this so accessible.
Of course it’s a classic and in spite of the gore and the violence ,the imagery, rhythm and progress of the story make the telling absorbing.
Written in the 7th century BCE it is astounding to learn what knowledge already existed then. It is also informative about the Greek gods and how beliefs from this time fed into the later religions.

Pitch perfect narration

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A wonderful translation of Homer's epic poem read by Alfred Molina, but for me the best thing was translator Stephen Mitchell's long introduction on what makes this book such a Classic. Inspirational!

Brilliant intro; Fab translation; Great reader

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