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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

The Iliad

15:41 / 30.01.04

Does anyone know where can find the Illiad in the original greek?

19:47 / 30.01.04

Do you mean on the net? The Perseus Digital Library is a good place to start looking. If you are looking for hard copy then there are the new, shiny Cambridge University Press editions with commentary and various helpful bits. Good luck with it; it's a quite difficult text, even if you're Greek (like me), but a fantastic way to exercise your brain.

ONLY NICE THINGS

21:13 / 30.01.04

The Loeb classical library does a two-book edition, with a concurrent English translation, although unless they have changed the translation it's *awful*.

My copy is Monro's edition, from the Clarendon press -I don't know if that is still in print, but they are pretty long-lived. If you mean wheer can you buy a copy of it... erm. Amazon, maybe? If you live in London, you're sorted - Foyles has a small Classics section. Blackwell's in Oxford, natch... the Loeb libraries are actually pretty widely available, as these things go...

Johnny - is the CUP version useful? Who's doing the commentary?
Or Perseus, although reading Ancient Greek from a screen tires the eyes after a bit.

Are you planning to learn Ancient Greek, or do you already read it? That could make a difference...

22:05 / 30.01.04

Yes, the CUP editions are quite good although quite expensive to buy the whole thing (to be honest, I don't think that the whole of the Iliad has yet been published in the CUP format but I have been assured that it will be in due time). I was using the CUPs when I was doing my Classics degree and they were helpful as they are very very meticulous. The Loebs are also great as textbooks and they are very handy as you get all 24 books in two handy volumes. Haus, a variety of people are doing the commentaries (mainly, notes on syntax, dialect and grammar) in the CUPs; off the top of my head, I can remember Richard Janko, Jasper Griffin and Richard Maehler. But I could be wrong; haven't looked at the things since 1999.

So, eeoam, to reiterate Haus' question, do you already read Greek? if you are planning on reading the Iliad in the original text, I am assuming you can already read Greek. Still, if you need any help with the biblio and other such stuff, don't hesitate to pm and i'll try to help you out.

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:21 / 01.02.04

*Lovely* Jasper Griffin - he used to lecture me, and is exactly what you want from a Don - tweedy, beaky, angular and with an exceptionally dry sense of humour...

OH, if you are planning to learn as you go, eeoam, be warned that a lot of Greek langauge course/textbooks teach Classical Greek, not Homeric Greek. The Thrasymachus textbook might not be a bad start... you may need an Ancient Greek dictionary, as well, and also you can get little Homeric dictionaries, which cover specifically Homeric words and forms - can be v. useful.

17:03 / 01.02.04

Yesyesyes, Haus! Jasper Griffin displays those exact traits in that exact order. That made me smile (and almost made me wish I were still doing Classics; I immediately retracted after I reminded myself of certain other lecturers in the same faculty Jasper Griffin teaches at...) . And you are absolutely right in pointing out that most courses/textbooks teach Classical Greek which is a good deal less difficult than Homeric Greek.

eeoam, if you are indeed keen on learning classical Greek and you are a beginner, Lysias is another good entry point.

22:38 / 01.02.04

thanks for the info everyone. It's not actualy for myself at the moment - it's for someone who's familiar with greek and I think would find it enjoyable.