Two quick questions: is it absolutely necessary to read The Iliad before reading The Odyssey...

>is it absolutely necessary to read The Iliad before reading The Odyssey?

No

>And are the translations by Lombardo decent?

Yes. My favourite is Fitzgerald for the Odyssey, but Lombardo is fine

>Why the fuck would you skip the better poem to read the Odyssey?

Also this

you're well read

But in fairness, that's the modern day translation.

Who here like Fagles? I always found his translations a little lame and I was quite surprised how many Veeky Forumsizens uses his translations. I feel like Lattimore's should be more widely read on this board considering his is the closest to the original text and is the main translation used for academia (for the most part).

OP here. The reason I asked this is because I'm a poorfriend and I found a copy of pic related at the thrift store and, looking online, copies of The Iliad by Lombardo are too costly for me to buy right now. I might get the two by either Fagles, Lattimore or Fitzgerald at the library if I get the chance. I have lots of other books to read at the moment already, however. I do like the Lombardo covers though! They're pretty cool.

Just kidnap some books from the library and maybe staple your cover of choice to their front. Doesn't even have to be the right book.
I've been reading Goosebumps with Hemmingway covers for the last week.

Nice meme, I rate it fresh.

>the better poem
Why kind of turbopleb are you?

The Iliad:
>linear narrative
>huge over-saturation of characters
>le ebin lion simile every ten lines
>main character is absent for half the poem
>literally nothing happens but soldiers throwing spears at one another
>anti-climatic ending

The Odyssey
>intelligent non-linear narrative style
>develops a couple of main characters
>addresses a diverse range of themes
>things actually happen other than spear chucking
>concludes with a satisfying resolution

my nigga. Just look at children's lit: what did they rip off?
[_] Demigods and scrambling around for a few hundred pages
[X] Cool adventures of Odysseus and his mates as they go from one island to another fucking monsters and slaying maids, clever tricks and mystical creatures, with an actual progression

>inb4 you're a pleb for reading for plot (plob)
and
>rating ancient greek poems
If you're truly starting with the greeks you'll read both and shitpost about them equally

don't worry OP you're good. enjoy it.

we used the lombardo trans in uni

Here's an actual quote from Lombardo:

You die too, friend. Don’t take it hard.
Patroclus died, and he was far better than you.
Take a look at me. Do you see how huge I am,
How beautiful? I have a noble father,
My mother was a goddess, but I too
Am in death’s shadow. There will come a time,
Some dawn or evening or noon in this war,
When someone will take my life from me
With a spear thrust or an arrow from a string.

Please stop.

Kill yourself you fucking philistine

Honestly

why does no one recommend the superior pope translation?

I prefer The Odyssey but you got the Iliad all wrong.

None of those things are part of my subjective assesment

All are literary shortcomings that make The Iliad an inferior work of art

Forget comparison for a second and note that something as ridiculous as linearity vs nonlinearity has no deciding factor in making a work a better or lesser art by itself. If you think the ending is an anticlimax you don't understand what the ending was doing and, by extension, you don't understand what the Iliad was a whole was doing. Did you think it was supposed to end with the trojan horse or something?

he butchered it on purpose

every translator is a butcher

Chapman*

They go hand in hand in my opinion. The Iliad revolves around the apotheosis of war glory, where the Odyssey deconstructs the idea and glorifies the height of mortal life as the status of a man who lives for his family.

Lombardo is my nigga

Why not ask your local library to order a copy?