The Iliad

A New Translation

By: Homer, Stephen Mitchell - translator

Narrated by: Alfred Molina

Man seduces another's wife then kidnaps her. The husband and his brother get a gang together to steal her back and take revenge. The woman regrets being seduced and wants to escape, whilst the man's entourage resent the position they have been placed in. Yet the battle lines have been drawn and there is no going back...

Not the plot of the latest Hollywood thriller, but the basis of the ILIAD - the Greek classic that details the war between the Greeks and the Trojans after the kidnapping of Helen of Sparta. Based on the recent, superb, M.L. West edition of the Greek, this ILIAD is more readable and moving than any previous version. Thanks to the scholarship and poetic power of the highly acclaimed Stephen Mitchell, this new translation recreates the energy and simplicity, the speed, grace, and continual thrust and pull of the original, while the ILIAD's ancient story bursts vividly into life. This edition also includes book 10 as an appendix, making it indispensible for students and lay readers alike.

Read by Alfred Molina

(p) 2011 Simon & Schuster©2011 Stephen Mitchell

Critic reviews

The verse is well-forged and clean-limbed, pulsing along in an unobtrusive pentameter...Mitchell has re-energised it for a new generation

A sturdy, muscular, and nuanced translation that will surely bring many new readers to this great work, "one of the monuments of our own magnificence", in Stephen Mitchell's happy formulation (John Banville)

The story is still as urgent as a sword through the buttock (of which there are several), the exquisite efficiency of Mitchell's language often takes your breath away. (Bella Todd)

Brilliant

First impression of this audio book is Alfred Molena's butter smooth voice and British accent. It is simply and beautifully read and an absolute pleasure to listen to. This is my first encounter with the Illiad so I can't compare the translation, but found it thoroughly accessible and engaging. As for the story itself, in a word, gruelling. Not in a negative way but this is, if you like, 'R rated' reading for the violence. But the macchinations and quarrels of gods and men are intriguing and Homer's use of imagery is delightful.