Is Lombardo a good translation of the Iliad? I've already

>>8463528
It was my first and I liked it a lot. I think it's great for the first time reader who is unaccustomed to the classics--think your average high-school or college kid who is just Starting with the Greeks(tm).

Stylistically, it's much closer to Fagles than to Pope. In fact it might be the only translation more 'readable' for the novice than Fagles', who is famous for it (barring Rieu's prose one perhaps).

Compared to Fagles', it's even more direct, more terse, concentrated, colloquial, powerful and it sounds good when declamed--imho better than Chapman's, Pope's, Lattimore's or Merril's, who are all supposed to feature more sophisticated metre. Lombardo's metre is very similar to Fagles' (to my uneducated eye, at least): it's a sort of semi-regular, unrhymed verse. It sounds to me somewhat like Beowulf, though I can't remember which translation of that I've read. Anyway, I should probably refrain from making further comments on prosody since I'm not that knowledgeable.

Another thing I loved about Lombardo is that he separates the famous Homeric similes from the rest by putting them in italics and 'breaking' the rhythm somewhat around them. Obviously, this is bound to piss off some people. I personally enjoyed this because it made me reflect more upon the imagery (most of which is fucking amazing, if you ask me). It also helps if you want to do what I did: copy all the similes and compile a sort of long, disjointed homeric poem of things that other things are being compared to; you won't know what the latter are and you won't care, for these second parts of similes flow so beautifully. I open this poem of hemi-similes every so often and read at random; I will never get bored of them.

On the downside, Lombardo's translation is not very literal compared to, say, Lattimore's. It seems that our guy took some liberties with the source material; having no Greek, I couldn't say if it is so and to which extent. Other than that, it sounds too terse and stripped at times. At other times it sounds a bit edgy and too contemporary, especially when taunts are exchanged or when the gods fight it out between themselves.

All the traits I listed in the third paragraph above might represent flaws to some people; to me they are definitely qualities. I'll always love Lombardo's Iliad and Odyssey and be grateful for pulling me into the world of the classics.

>>8464222
I'll try to put it fewer words:

When I'm reading Lattimore or Merrill I am reminded that I am reading a masterpiece of classical literature that towers over literary art to this day. When I'm reading Lombardo or Fagles I am being made clear that I'm reading a poem about rage and war, glory and death, about what it feels to live a short life and what's left of us afterwards. I'm feeling I'm reading something universal that might have been written no matter when.

>>8464222
P.S. If you find yourself enjoying the likes of Fagles and Lombardo you might want to check out Ian Johnston's translations. I believe he makes them available for free on his webpage. Look him up.

>>8464292
>>8464280
>>8464222
Not OP but thanks a lot. Youre one of the good ones here

Bloom recommends Lattimore for the Iliad but then he recommends Fitzgerald for the Odyssey. Any ideas why?

>>8464401
Edward Mendelson did this at Columbia. If I remember right, he said that Fitz's Odyssey handles morality better than Lattimore's Odyssey.

>>8464222
OP here, thanks a lot. One of the things I loved about Fagles was his sense of directnesss.

Just ordered Lombo on Amazon

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How do I write a torture scene?

What lit has great torture scenes?

inb4
>Naked Lunch
>1984

Do I need to get tortured myself?

>>8464222

Do you have your list of similes in a file you can upload, or did you write them out? I'd really love to find a complete list of them in one of the big translations.

>>8465449
Just watched some fucked up torture porn on the internet and imagine what you would never want anyone to do to you, and then write about someone calmly doing that thing to you and about how permanent it would be.

>>8465449
There's a very disturbing one somewhere in the middle of The Lime Twig by Hawkes. It's nothing too elaborate, too 'medieval'. I wouldn't even call it proper torture, technically--it's just a very brutal, deliberate beating. A thug beats a woman as punishment and revenge for trying to escape him. It's written from the woman's point of view; she has never been through this before. Her torturer has, many times. He knows what he's doing. He knows how to hurt her.

>>8465493
I have a pdf in my computer at home, where I won't be back until next week. I'll upload it somewhere and make a thread here. It you can leave me an email address, or is that not allowed here because it's personal information?

>>8463528
>Lombardo
>good

pick one