Iliad
Critique • Quotes • Text • Translations
Pope translation, first edition title page, 1715Also known as
Song of Ilium
First publication
c. 800 BCE
Literature form
Poetry
Genres
Epic
Writing language
Ancient Greek
Author's country
Greece
Length
24 chapters, approx. 16,000 lines
Notable lines
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....
— First lines, trans. Fagles
I came not warring here for any ill the Trojans had done me. I have no quarrel with them.
— trans. Butler
Bronze spearheads
Drove past each other as the Greek and Trojan armies
Spread like a hemorrhage across the plain.
— trans. Lombardo
"And another Greek has my spear in his flesh!
Use it a crutch on your way down to hell."
— trans. Lombardo
"Nothing is more miserable than man
Of all that breathes and moves upon the earth."
— trans. Lombardo
Thus, then, did they celebrate the funeral of Hector tamer of horses
— Last line, trans. Butler
Critique • Quotes • Text • Translations
