Overall this is a highly professional production, to be seriously considered for textbook use in the classroom. This is a magnificent piece of work….I enjoyed reading [Hammond’s] Odyssey enormously. It is more years than I care to think since I read the work from end to end. Hammond’s translation moved me to do so within a day, and that is a tribute indeed. This is a first-class work which should give pleasure to both those who read Greek and those who do not – and deserves to attract many to read Homer for whom that is as yet a pleasure in store Fitzgerald’s Odyssey and Iliad] open up once more the unique greatness of Homer’s art at the level above the formula; yet at the same time they do not neglect the brilliant texture of Homeric verse at the level of the line and the phrase.” – The Yale Review

Section 2. Heroic Value (pp. 23-26). Here Jones focuses on some basic aspects of the hero’s mentality, from the core-value of kleos to the concept of aidos, from the generic competitiveness and the urgent commitment to be the best on the battlefield to the ability to win in debates, too. Although Jones talks about aidos, the overall explanation omits to emphasize the deep involvement of the so-called ‘shame-culture’ 9 above all in relation to the “central subject” of the poem (p. 24), namely the anger of Achilles following the quarrel with Agamemnon. Achilles’ emotional reaction, from which the whole Iliadic story originates, is a consequence of Agamemnon’s humiliation, having his gift of honour — i.e. the geras, the tangible sign of heroes’ reputation ( time) – publicly removed. It is not accidental that Achilles’ first complaint, when talking to his mother, is the fact that Agamemnon atimazei him ( Iliad 1. 355-356; see also, e.g., 1. 170; 2. 4, 240; 9. 109-111). Thus, his reaction is certainly understandable in a shame-culture perspective. Jones misses unfolding this aspect in the General Introduction as well as in the commentary on the 1st Book (p. 53). He focuses almost exclusively on the following items: the debate as the first reaction of the two heroes to the problem, as according to the heroic code they have to assert themselves and win by debating, too (p. 25); the issue of Agamemnon’s status which does not justify the way he dealt with Achilles’ feelings of injustice (pp. 26, 53). Not to deny the well known importance of the ‘authority’ issue, 10 the impression is that of an one-sided explanation. 11 Menes" on the other hand signifies a specific kind of rage, a divine rage, the intensity of which is always associated with the gods (like when Apollo shoots his arrows), but never with humans; ie a word reserved for Gods. One wonders how the ballad was delivered—in pieces or over a period of days—perhaps in sections by different singers? Caroline Alexander, after a lifetime of her own research into the Homeric epics argues in The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War that the work certainly required days to recite, and may have been performed in episodes. The length of the piece suggests the piece was once short enough to be memorized, leaving room for invention and modification as befits the oral tradition. Illustration on the interior of a Greek kylix, Achilles dressing the wounds of Patroclus. Attic red figure, Vulci, Italy, ca. 500 BCE, signed by the potter Sosias. Kylix – Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin F2278 (c. 500 BC).Jones also never introduces the concept of geras, which is actually what provokes the quarrel (see E. Benveniste, Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes, Paris 1969, vol. II, espec. pp. 43-44). As to how the time / aidos issue affects the reaction of Achilles and his desire of revenge, Jones nevertheless later talks of “revenge for his own [Achilles] slighted honour” (p. 311).

We notice immediately the difference in rhythm and tone when we compare the 1913 translation of Butcher and Lang: The Iliad contains few cases of diseases, the main example being the description of a plague raging in the Achaean camp, which starts the narration. The plague is caused by offense to a divinity and as such can only be remedied by offering adequate reparation to the gods. Battlefield injuries, on the other hand, are dealt with more pragmatically. 32 Authors have noted that “one of the traits of Homeric medicine is that it is, by and large, a secular (i.e. human) activity,” 33 although a few instances of wounds healed directly by the gods are described. Homeric Geography: Mainland Greece 2. Homeric Geography: The Peloponnese 3. Homeric Geography: The Aegean and Asia Minor Inset: Troy and Vicinity

Sahlas DJ, “Functional Neuroanatomy in the pre-Hippocratic era: observations from the Iliad of Homer”, Neurosurgery 48 (2001): 1352-1357.

The proem of H.’s translation is presented below, followed by those of other translations (I offer brief comments on the former, but not, for reasons of space, the latter): From battle and the sea. But him
And him alone—though still he longed
For home and wife—the nymph Calypso,
A mighty goddess, kept imprisoned
Within her hollow caves, and longed
To make him there her husband. No,

Retailers:

Verse translations by W. Cowper, R. Fagles, R. Fitzgerald, R. Lattimore, S. Lombardo, and G. Chapman are available at most bookstores; for prose, those by G. Palmer, E.V. Rieu, and W. Shrewing. More advanced students are served by A. Cook’s translation, and the edition with extensive commentary by R.D. Dawe. For a comprehensive history of English translations of Homer, see Homer in English (New York: Penguin, 1996), ed. George Steiner, pp. 350-355. Odyssey on other hand is about the craftiness and mindfulness of man (or μήτις, a word that disappeared even from ancient Greek, but important enough for books to be written about it - referring especially to the amazing work by Vernant Jean-pierre and Detienne Marcel).