'War, the bringer of tears...'War, glory, despair, and mourning: for 2,700 years the Iliad has gripped listeners and readers with the story of Achilles' anger and Hector's death. This tragic episode during the siege of Troy, sparked by a quarrel between the leader of the Greek army and its mightiest warrior, Achilles, is played out between mortals and gods, with devastating human consequences. It is a story of many
truths, speaking of awesome emotions, the quest for fame and revenge, the plight of women, and the lighthearted laughter of the gods. Above all, it confronts us with war in all its brutality - and with fleeting images of
peace, which punctuate the poem as distant memories, startling comparisons, and doomed aspirations. The Iliad's extraordinary power testifies to the commitment of its many readers, who have turned to it in their own struggles to understand life and death.This elegant and compelling new translation is accompanied by a full introduction and notes that guide the reader in understanding the poem and the many different contexts in which it was performed and read.
Author Biography
Anthony Verity is a classical scholar and educationalist whose appointments include Head of Classics at Bristol Grammar School, Headmaster of Leeds Grammar School, and Master of Dulwich College from 1986 to 1995. His translations for Oxford World's Classics include Theocritus, Idylls, Pindar, The Complete Odes, and Homer, The Odyssey. Barbara Graziosi's research focuses on ancient Greek literature and its readers, both ancient and modern.
Her books include Inventing Homer: The Early Reception of Epic (CUP, 2002, pbk 2007), Homer: The Resonance of Epic, (Duckworth, 2005, jointly written with Johannes Haubold), Homer in the Twentieth Century: Between World
Literature and the Western Canon (OUP, 2007, pbk 2010, jointly edited with Emily Greenwood), The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies (2009, jointly edited with G. R. Boys-Stones and P. Vasunia), a commentary on Iliad 6, co-written with Johannes Haubold, and The Gods of Olympus: A History (Profile, 2014). Forthcoming books include a VSI to Homer.
