When Emily WilsonтАЩs translation of The Odyssey appeared in 2017тАФrevealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that was тАЬfresh, unpretentious and leanтАЭ (Madeline Miller, Washington Post)тАФcritics lauded it as тАЬa revelationтАЭ (Susan Chira, New York Times) and тАЬa cultural landmarkтАЭ (Charlotte Higgins, Guardian) that would forever change how Homer is read in English. Now Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of HomerтАЩs other great epicтАФthe most revered war poem of all time.
The Iliad roars with the clamor of arms, the bellowing boasts of victors, the fury and grief of loss, and the anguished cries of dying men. It sings, too, of the sublime magnitude of the worldтАФthe fierce beauty of nature and the godsтАЩ grand schemes beyond the ken of mortals. In WilsonтАЩs hands, this thrilling, magical, and often horrifying tale now gallops at a pace befitting its legendary battle scenes, in crisp but resonant language that evokes the poemтАЩs deep pathos and reveals palpably real, even тАЬcomplicated,тАЭ charactersтАФboth human and divine.
The culmination of a decade of intense engagement with antiquityтАЩs most surpassingly beautiful and emotionally complex poetry, WilsonтАЩs Iliad now gives us a complete Homer for our generation.
Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been named a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome in Renaissance and early modern studies, a MacArthur Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow. In addition to HomerтАЩs Iliad and Odyssey, she has also published translations of Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca. She lives in Philadelphia.