After reading Francesca Petrizzo’s book about the story of the Trojan war from Helen’s perspective, I thought I’ll read the original book, Homer’s ‘The Iliad‘. I wondered which translation I should read. I’ve always wanted to read the Robert Fagles and the Richmond Lattimore translations. There is also the Alexander Pope translation which is highly rated. I have the Robert Fitzgerald translation somewhere but couldn’t find it now. So I was wondering what to do and was thinking whether I should buy one of these translations. Then I remembered this prose translation I had. I felt that I should read the book I had in hand rather than get a new one. So I went and read it.
Everyone knows what is the story told in ‘The Iliad’. It is simple. The Trojan war is on. Something happens on the Greek side. The Chief Commander of the Greeks, Agamemnon takes away a woman who is Achilles’ companion. Achilles is upset and angry and refuses to fight in the war and watches it from the sidelines, while he broods. The pendulum of war moves back and forth between the Greeks and the Trojans. At one point, it looks like the Trojans might win. They’ve injured most of the Greek heroes and are close to taking over the Greek ships. Achilles’ close friend Patroclus says that he can’t sit quietly anymore and he wants to go and fight. Achilles gives him his blessing. Patroclus does well and pushes the Trojans back. But he ends up against the Trojan crown prince, Hector, who kills him. When Achilles hears of his best friend’s death, he is heartbroken. He feels that he’s done enough of the brooding nonsense and goes to fight. This can end in only one way. Achilles is the greatest warrior on both the sides. He takes revenge and kills Hector. But he does the nasty stuff after that. He refuses to hand over Hector’s body to the Trojans. So Hector’s father, King Priam comes to Achilles’ tent and begs for his son’s body so that he can give him a proper funeral. Achilles’ heart melts, he feels that King Priam is like his own father, he treats him like a honoured guest and then later hands over Hector’s body. Hector gets a funeral as befits the crown prince.
So that’s it. This is the story. It can be told in a page. But the book I read was 340 pages long. What is it then that is told in the other 339 pages? Most of it is about war. About who killed whom. And how did they do it. It is violent and it is hard to read. I think that the German epic ‘The Nibelungenlied‘ is the most violent epic that I’ve ever read. I think ‘The Iliad’ will come a close second. After a point, the battle scenes and the violence and the killing are hard to read. I almost wanted to scream at Homer – “What is this, man? Why are you inflicting this on us?”
There are some nice, quiet, beautiful lines in the book in the middle of all the war and the violence. Like this one –
“…and many a noble pair of steeds drew an empty chariot along the highways of war, for lack of drivers who were lying on the plain, more useful now to vultures than to their wives.”
And this one –
“As when there is a heavy swell upon the sea – they keep their eyes on the watch for the quarter from where the fierce winds may spring upon them, but they stay where they are and set neither this way nor that till some particular wind sweeps down from heaven to determine them – even so did the old man ponder whether to make for the crowd of Greeks, or go in search of Agamemnon.”
And this one –
“Thus high in hope they sat through the livelong night by the highways of war, and many a watch fire did they kindle. As when the stars shine clear, and the moon is bright – there is not a breath of air, not a peak nor a glade nor a jutting headland but it stands out in the ineffable radiance that breaks from the serene of heaven; the stars can all of them be told and the heart of the shepherd is glad – even thus shone the watch fires of the Trojans before Ilium midway between the ships and the river Xanthus. A thousand campfires gleamed upon the plain, and in the glow of each there sat fifty men, while the horses, champing oats and corn beside their chariots, waited till dawn should come.”
I also had a sneaking suspicion that ‘The Iliad’ may not be a complete book. Maybe it is one part of a five-part or ten-part epic. Because I’ve never read an ancient epic like this. Epics always have a beginning, a middle, and an end. They always have something in the story for everyone – there will be some nice plot, some dialogue, some romance, some humour, some tragedy, some war. ‘The Iliad’ starts somewhere in the middle and ends somewhere in the middle. Maybe the whole book was available together once upon a time till some crazy guy like Savonarola burnt it. And now we have this incomplete thing which gets translated every decade by a new translator.
I can’t say that I enjoyed reading ‘The Iliad’. It was hard reading, and atleast two times, once when I’d reached around a 100 pages, and the second time when I’d reached around a 200 pages, I nearly DNFed it. But I hate DNF-ing books and so I ploughed on both times. After reaching 200 pages, I speed read and got through the book. I think I caught all the important scenes.
I’ve always hated Agamemnon and Achilles, but when I read this, I discovered that they are not as bad as I thought. Agamemnon, after his initial arrogance, realizes his mistake and apologizes for it and tries to make amends. He has a big heart. I didn’t expect that at all. Achilles, inspite of his brooding, is likeable. I was expecting to like Hector, but I found him okay. My favourite character was Nestor. He was old and wise and everyone listened to him. I’ve heard some people hypothesize that Achilles was gay and Patroclus was his boyfriend, but there is nothing to indicate that in the book. It seems to be 21st century imagination imposed on a 3000-year old story. Most of the women characters played only minor roles in the story. It was to be expected in a tale of war. Many Greek gods and goddesses appear in the story and they influence the events of the war. I didn’t like them much. Most of them were imperfect, flawed and crazy.
I’m glad I read ‘The Iliad’. I can’t say that I liked it, but I’m happy to check it off my list. I am wondering whether it would have been a better reading experience, if I had read a verse translation. I don’t know the answer to that question, but I feel that a verse translation wouldn’t have been able to improve the story, and so wouldn’t have made much of a difference. I want to read some of the other ancient classics too – The Odyssey, and the Roman epics, The Aeneid and Metamorphoses. I think they’ll be better because they have self-contained stories. But unless we read it, we can never tell. I hope and pray that they are better.
Have you read ‘The Iliad’? What to you think about it? Which translation did you read?
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