/lit/ - Literature

Fagels Iliad and Fitzgerald Odyssey?

Start over with the Greeks.

Why would you want to skip The Iliad though?

>>18276640
It's amazing and better than the Odyssey, but no. In the Greek tradition, sequels don't work like how we are used to them now, and it can basically be regarded as a different 'Odysseus' to the one in the Iliad.

>>18276640
I honestly thought it was great. Think it's good to read it because The Odyssey is kinda like a sequel. Illiad 2 - The Voyage Home

>>18276917
It would be more rewarding tho or no?

>>18276852
>>18276924
Sorry, that was meant for you.

>>18276640
You dont have to, but I think reading it makes thr Odyssey better, as some of the characters or the illiad reappear and talk about events of the illiad 20 years after

>>18276640
I loved the illiad. honestly its worth the time, that being said it depends on what you want to do with literature in the future
its skippable with the odyssey referencing the bigger events but plato references it, alexander the great (and other ancient people) modeled their own manhood after achilles’s morals but if your just trying to move onto philosophy or western lit you skip it or just read it later in life
you are your own man though make your own choices

Regarding the Iliad, a friend of mine recommended me to listen to The Trojan War Podcast to get some background to the events that take place in Homer’s story. It is a great podcast and and I was very thankful for having listened to it before tackling the Iliad. You should check it out bros, it is a great listen for whenever you are out running, walking etc

>>18277054
im good thanks

>>18276731
It's Crowper for both, your modern translations are trash

It's 90% repetition, you probably could read the first few chapters, then a handful of ones picked at random, then the last few and be just fine.

>>18277265
I strongly feel that the repetition is part of what makes the struggle so great. It’s not shakepeare but if your not willing to bite the bullet and read the whole thing then just puruse the wikipedia summery, it really wont spoil your reading if you do decide to read it later
also i’d recommend fagles translation

>>18277054
Hey I'll take the podcast if the other guy is passing it up.

>>18277112
So I bought Fagles and Pope's translations of The Iliad, and while I'm enjoying both I feel like Fagles isn't very poetic and the verse is almost prose. Pope's translation feels more Pope (and ostensibly, Milton) than Homer and while I like it, it feels a little weird? Is Cowper's translation what I'm looking for?

The Iliad is better than the Odyssey. Maybe its not as enjoyable as the latter but surely is more impressive. I'm currently on chant 15 of the Odyssey, reading right after the Illiad, and I miss a lot of things that are in the tale of the wrath of achilles that are not in the return home of laertes son.

what's the point of the prose translations

>>18278509
this is the only acceptable form of translation

>>18278532
Where can I find a modern or updated version of this?

>>18277979
yes

>>18276640
There’s some stuff you could skip in the Greeks and still understand later works but the Iliad is not one of them. Also why would you want to?

>>18277054
Thanks for recommending this a fortnight ago - I listened to the whole thing, and it was very good at giving background, and explaining what happened next to characters that disappear from the story.

>>18276640
No just read Pynchon, Joyce and Wallace

>>18278532
>>18278570
Where to find?

>>18277401
>>18278723
Thanks anons, makes me very happy to hear that.

>>18276731
Fagels more like Fagels
Read Pope

>>18276640
You can skip it, but reading the Iliad first enlivens and enriches the narrative background, which is something which otherwise does not exist in Homer - every other detail is attentively recounted & foregrounded as it appears.

Also: if you're not merely grinding a path through the classics, priority of translations is unimportant, because you should be returning to Homer and reading four or five different versions regardless of which you began with.

You should read the Iliad because it's the better of the pair.
Also because it's my favorite book of all time.

>>18276640
Yes, you can skip the Odyssey and go straight to the Illiad.

>>18280993
>>18279704
>>18276640
Why, yes, you can skip both the Iliad and Odyssey and go straight to the Aeneid.