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The Greeks believed that The Iliad and The Odyssey were composed by a single poet whom they named Homer. Nothing is known of his life. While seven Greek cities claim the honor of being his birthplace, ancient tradition and the dialect and locational knowledge of the poems place him in Ionia, located in the eastern Aegean. His birthdate is undocumented as well, though most modern scholars now place the composition of The Iliad and The Odyssey between 725 and 675 b.c. The subject of Homer's epics involves the Trojan War, generally dated around 1200 b.c., but they actually reflect the eighth-century world of the Eastern Mediterranean; a world of dramatic growth and expansion, emerging out of the Dark Ages that followed the collapse of the Mycenaen civilization in the twelfth century.
ROBERT FAGLES
Robert Fagles is Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University. He is the recipient of a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His acclaimed verse translations include Sophocles' Three Theban Plays, Aeschylus' Oresteia (nominated for a National Book Award in 1977), Homer's Iliad (winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets, an award from the Translation Center of Columbia University, and the New Jersey Humanities Book Award) and Homer's Odyssey (1996). He lives in Princeton, New Jersey. He is currently at work on a new translation of Virgil's Aeneid.
E.V. RIEU
E. V. Rieu was a celebrated translator from Latin and Greek, and editor of Penguin Classics from 1944-1964. His son, D. C. H. Rieu has revised his work.
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Related Titles
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Fleeing the ruins of fallen Troy, Aeneas and his followers seem destined to wander the ancient world endlessly. Unbeknownst to them, Jupiter has ordained that the Trojan champion shall promulgate a race that will be the forebears of Rome. But first he must survive epic battles, the wrath of the gods, and a star-crossed romance with Dido, Queen of Carthage.
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Author Image: Staatliches Museum, Schwerin AKG London |
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