The Iliad

By: Homer, Samuel Butler - translator

Narrated by: Matthew Josdal

The Iliad, together with The Odyssey, is one of two ancient Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer. The work is commonly dated to the 8th or 7th century BC, and many scholars believe it is the oldest extant work of literature in the Greek language, making it the first work of European literature. The story concerns events during the 10th and final year in the siege of the city of Troy by the Greeks. This version has been translated and set into English prose by Samuel Butler.

Public Domain (P)2012 Alpha DVD LLC

SAVAGE

The Iliad is savage. Long, but savage. Imagine living in those times? It is a must. End of story.

good

Very descriptive ,glory, Awesome. Every boy should read this book! It was the best book I have ever listened to!

Poor narration

I wish I would have chosen the Greek translation. However my biggest disappointment is with the narrator. He has what appears to be a strong Canadian accent, which is very distracting. He mispronounced many words as well. Not my favorite audiobook.

Iliad

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Difficult to follow because so much time is spent describing the lineage of each character. Joe the son of ed, the brother of tom, the cousin of Allen, the nephew of Jack.......All with greek names...

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

no real ending the death of Hector

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

some interesting facts..

Was The Iliad worth the listening time?

not really a shorter summary would be as just as good.

Roman not Greek

I have the actual book of The Iliad and at some points they do not go based on the book translated by Samuel Butler they use the roman names and not the Greek names as is written in the copy of the book I got so it is very confusing to hear one thing and read another

Careful which translation you choose.

Your take may be very different than mine depending on what you are looking for. I learned the hard way that it pays to research you choice of translation before committing to a version of a translated work. The most obvious thing that will jump out at you is the use of the Latin names for the gods (you will not see the names Zeus, Hera, etc.). I tried to overlook it, but it was a significant irritant (though I suppose if you are use to the Latin names that would be a plus to you).

The other, in my mind bigger, issue, is that the translation appears to sanatize the work. Very early on, there is a part where Agamemnon talks definitely about how a girl he has taken as a prize will, amongst other things, share his bedchamber. However, in this translation, he just talks about sharing his "couch". The way it is done removes the clear sexual connotation, and ends up being cumbersome or akward in how it tries to keep language there while removing the core of it's meaning. Not knowing what else may or may not have been "improved", that is about as far as I went, having wasted a credit, and ultimately went with a different translation.

Also, I believe this is a prose translation.

Again, maybe this translation is exactly what you are looking for. But it was not what I was, and you should do your homework before committing to a translation.