- Published: 26 June 2003
- ISBN: 9780140444445
- Imprint: Penguin Classics
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 528
- RRP: $21.00
The Iliad











'Martin Hammond's modern prose version is the best and most accurate there has ever been' - Peter Levi in the Independent
The Iliad is the first and the greatest literary achievement of Greek civilisation - an epic poem without rival in the literature of the world, and the cornerstone of Western culture.
The story of the Iliad centres on the critical events in the last year of the Trojan War, which lead to Achilleus' killing of Hektor and determine the fate of Troy. But Homer's theme is not simply war or heroism. With compassion and humanity, he presents a universal and tragic view of the world, of human life lived under the shadow of suffering and death, set against a vast and largely unpitying divine background. The Iliad is the first of the great tragedies.
- Published: 26 June 2003
- ISBN: 9780140444445
- Imprint: Penguin Classics
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 528
- RRP: $21.00
Other books in the series
About the author
Homer, name traditionally assigned to the author of the ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY, the two major epics of Greek antiquity. Nothing is known of Homer as an individual, and in fact it is a matter of controversy whether a single person can be said to have written both the ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY. Linguistic and historical evidence, however, suggests that the poems were composed in the Greek settlements on the west coast of Asia Minor sometime in the 8th century BC.
Homer was a Greek poet, recognized as the author of the great epics, the Iliad, the story of the siege of Troy, and the Odyssey, the tale of Ulysses’s wanderings.
Praise for The Iliad
Much the best modern prose translation of the Iliad
Robin Lane Fox, Financial Times
This new prose translation of the Iliad is outstandingly good . . . to read it is to be gripped by it
Classical Review
Superbly direct and eloquent . . . by its sensitivity, fluency, and flexibility, it will win a permanent place on the shelves of Homer-lovers
Martin Fagg, Times Educational Supplement
Martin Hammond's new version is the best and most accurate there has ever been, as smooth as cream but as clear as water . . . Hammond's Iliad deserves to become a standard book
Peter Levi, Independent
Surely the best Iliad in quite a few decades
Greece & Rome Journal
Here is a fine Iliad for our times, to be read with great pleasure
Philip Howard, The Times