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The John Batchelor Show

1/8: The Iliad Hardcover – September 26, 2023 by Homer (Author), Emily Wilson (Translator)

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Arts, News, Society & Culture, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary


1/8: The Iliad Hardcover – September 26, 2023 by Homer (Author), Emily Wilson (Translator)
https://www.amazon.com/Iliad-Homer/dp/1324001801


When Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey appeared in 2017―revealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that was “fresh, unpretentious and lean” (Madeline Miller, Washington Post)―critics lauded it as “a revelation” (Susan Chira, New York Times) and “a cultural landmark” (Charlotte Higgins, Guardian) that would forever change how Homer is read in English. Now Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of Homer’s other great epic―the most revered war poem of all time.
The Iliad roars with the clamor of arms, the bellowing boasts of victors, the fury and grief of loss, and the anguished cries of dying men. It sings, too, of the sublime magnitude of the world―the fierce beauty of nature and the gods’ grand schemes beyond the ken of mortals. In Wilson’s hands, this thrilling, magical, and often horrifying tale now gallops at a pace befitting its legendary battle scenes, in crisp but resonant language that evokes the poem’s deep pathos and reveals palpably real, even “complicated,” characters―both human and divine.
The culmination of a decade of intense engagement with antiquity’s most surpassingly beautiful and emotionally complex poetry, Wilson’s Iliad now gives us a complete Homer for our generation.5 maps


1715 Iliad Achilles surrenders Briseis

Transcript

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0:00.0

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Nothing to it really.

0:35.4

Well, I will listening take us next,

0:37.8

under the power of dreams. This is CBS I on the World with John Bachelor.

0:45.0

And I welcome Professor.

0:50.0

Here's John Bachelor.

0:52.0

And I welcome Professor Emily Wilson.

0:55.0

Her new work is the Iliad, a translation in iambic pentameter,

1:01.0

for those of us in the 21st century who do not have the original or any Greek

1:05.4

whatsoever. It's a pleasure to welcome the professor and to thank her for how she

1:11.2

has worked so diligently, not only to present in English all the depths of Greek

1:18.3

language with the nuance, but also to make it easy to read on the page and to hear it read by the extremely

1:27.4

talented and gifted Audrey McDonald in the Audible.com version. I recommend having the book in front of you as you listen

1:35.6

to the reading. Not only will all the pronunciations come through, but the music, the

1:40.5

beat helps a deal to understand the comedy and the tragedy.

1:45.6

Professor, congratulations.

...

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