What is the best translation of The Iliad for a first time reader?

Lattimore.

B-but Lattimore is so ugly

why do anons shit on fitzgerald? what's soo good about lattimore?

Get the old edition at a used bookstore like I did.
Or fuck it just get Fitzgerald, the current printing of him is ultra-pretty.

>Fagles and Fitzgerald is for retarded high schoolers
>What is the best translation of The Iliad for a first time reader?
>first time reader

are these pleb?
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Been meaning to get Fitzgerald actually.

Buying Aeneid, Iliad, Odyssey hardback from Everymans Library is actually cheaper than the Fagles 3 book box set by Penguin.

But in this thread most people seem to say Fitzgerald is trash and Fagles is actually better(opposite to what people usually say here)

i am confused

Lattimore is strong in particular areas: he aims for literal translation, he tries as much as possible to translate the same words and phrases the same way (so one can pick up on the repeated epithets, line elements, type scenes and such, and get a good sense of the structure of Homeric composition), and he tries to compose a line that gives a sense of the movement of Homeric verse (as well as confining himself to the same line count as the Greek). Among the English verse translators, he's one of the best for getting a sense of the content of Homer, together with some of the style.

OTOH, as with all translations in time, his language can appear dated, his attempt at literal fidelty sometimes makes him obscure or difficult, and critics who emphasize poetic translation rate him less well for this. Basically, he is one of the translators you'd choose if you were assigning a version for a class in Greek literature in translation.

Don't put a lot of weight into the opinions people on Veeky Forums have. The best thing you can do for yourself is to listen to what people say when they actually care to elaborate, and with any search for translations you should shop around and read various excerpts. I'm partial to Fitzgerald and Fagles. Lattimore is the most scholarly but is awkward, and so I wouldn't recommend him for a first time reader. Fagles is the most approachable, but anyone a little experienced reading poetry would probably be alright to jump into Fitzgerald.

Ah, so you think it would be good to read hm after reading Fitzgerald? I was recommended Fitzgerald for my first red through and i wanted the most difficult translation but eh, apparently i got a high school version of the poem. Might pick up lattimore to use as a reference to some of the books if i choose to revisit the story. Since i'm almost done with the odyssey, who do you recommend for The Aenied?

There's nothing especially wrong with Fitgzerald; he represents a different balance from Lattimore between literal fidelity to the Greek and English poetry. No translation is going to give an identical experience to reading the Greek. Any of the major translations will be serviceable (including prose like Martin Hammond or the revised Loebs, as well as verse). The best advice I can give is to pick them up and read a bit. If you don't find the style attractive, you're probably not going to stick with it through twenty-four books. And of course you can always reread in different versions.

>Lattimore is the most scholarly but is awkward, and so I wouldn't recommend him for a first time reader.

I certainly wouldn't recommend him as a first experience of Greco-Roman literature in translation. If one has read other translated works, then he might be appropriate.

The Aeneid's a more difficult one. There's no version that has really established preeminence the way some of Homer have. Fitzgerald, Fagles, and Mandelbaum all have their advocates; Cecil Day Lewis is okay, but dated; Frederick Ahl's newish Oxford is probably the one that uses a translation philosophy closest to that of Lattimore's Homers, and has the greatest background of scholarship.

People aren't stupid. There's nothing remotely obstructive about Lattimore. It's awkward, not some super convoluted scholarly secret.

if you want another opinion, I find Fitzgerald a joy to read.

>Been meaning to get Fitzgerald actually.
Go for it, you won't regret.

Lombardo master race incoming.

don't bother with the iliad, honestly.

Fagles is for plebs.

Patrician is someone who'd get confuse to choose between Lattimore and Fitzgerald but end up choosing Fitzgerald always.

What a pleb.

You don't read Homer for some other faggot's mediocre poetry.

At least read Chapman or Pope if you're going to not read Homer.

The Iliad was pretty good all the way through, very consistent.
Anyone else think the Odyssey is really patchy?
>Odysseus's Son running around
Eh
>Odysseus meeting Phaeacians
Pretty dope
>Odysseus telling his story to Phaeacians
Boring as fuck, kill me please
>Odysseus gets home and starts planning
Pretty good, a bit too long
>Odysseus kills the suitors
Pretty dope, but makes less sense than Iliad battles
And then they made a pact and it was fine because of Athena the end.
The part where he's telling of his travels was what I thought would be the most interesting, but it's so fucking boring. Only the Cyclops part is any good.
I still liked it all though.

Yeah, you think the odyssey is going to be the shit with sea monsters and cyclops and all that shit but it's pretty gay

No, the Odyssey is just much more subtle in what it's saying. It's not easy to understand at all. If you want to get more out of it you really ought to read some essays or books on it.

I once asked Harold Bloom and he said Robert Fitzgerald. Seriously.

Holy fuck, nice.

So is the discussion basically over now?

Could you recommend some?

IIRC he said Lattimore for Iliad and Fitzgerald for Odyssey.

Try "Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad". The first 2/3 of it is wonderful analyses of both poems, but the last third is more of a plot summary of the Odyssey than anything, though it too has some useful analysis here and there.
The Cambridge Companion to Homer is good too, but focuses more on the Iliad. If you're unfamiliar with Homer in general it's a great resource as it goes through some of the history of the Homeric question, the form of each poem, meanings of certain parts, etc.

Rieu revised by Rieu Jr.

If you actually want Homer's poetry, then study Ancient Greek like I did, Pleb.

In english, I enjoyed Fitzgerald

Then you are a pleb. There is nothing more to say.

chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/1166?menuId=139
Many such monographs!