Classics

The Iliad Abridged

By Homer

Translated by Ian Johnston

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Homer's Iliad, the oldest and greatest epic poem in our culture, was composed in the eighth century BC. It became the single most important literary resource in ancient Greek culture and has exercised a decisive influence on Western culture an influence which continues to this day. The poem tells the story of a quarrel between Achilles, the greatest of the Achaean warriors in the Greek expedition against Troy, and Agamemnon, the commander of the expedition—an argument which causes Achilles to withdraw from the fighting. The battles continue without him, and the ironic unfolding of events eventually leads him to rejoin the war and to seek out the great Trojan warrior Hector for a climactic single combat. The Iliad is our most important war poem. It constantly forces us to confront what goes on in battle, how men sustain themselves amid the horrors of the killing zone, and how the activity is simultaneously intensely and brutally destructive and also, by one of the strangest of all of life's ironies, intensely creative.

Ian Johnston's abridged version of Homer's great poem is based upon his acclaimed translation of the complete epic (also published by Richer Resources Publications). The abridged text is approximately one third of the original and presents a coherent narrative poem in which every line is taken from Homer's text, with occasional short summaries to keep the story coherent. This shortened version is an ideal entry into Homer's vision of the world for those who are not yet ready or do not have the time to tackle the full poem. The text is accompanied by a few explanatory footnotes, a glossary of names, and a map indicating the origin of many of the major characters.

Category: Classics
ISBN (softcover): 978-0-9818162-8-9
e-ISBN: 978-1-935238-02-7
Author: Homer
Translator: Ian Johnston

I started reading your abridged translation of the Iliad and am impressed with the readability - quite different than the version I remember from my university days (1967). Thanks for the excellent work. I am staying in Moscow, Russia, and am re-reading the classics.

— Moscow
Excellent translation, easy to read, wonderful entry to epic Greek poems.

— Classics Enthusiast
Thank you so much for this beautiful translation of the Iliad. I have been searching and searching for a poetic form of the Iliad that I can give to my sophomores. This will totally work. I really enjoy your translation of the Iliad. Thank you so much for making this and your other translations available.. I have been using small sections of it my Western Civ classes for years.

— Idaho
I came across your Iliad translation when I made a Google (actually Vivisimo) search for new translations and/or the original Greek online. Yours is simply gorgeous, or at least what I've seen of it. It's the truest in both verse form and spirit of the original that I've seen. Don't mean to gush, but it simply blew me away. With best wishes,

— Nancy C