Which Translation of the Iliad Should You Read?

In brief: the Poetry Codex holds ten complete English Iliads spanning more than three centuries, and this guide explains what each one is like, who it suits, and where we suggest you begin.

Ten Iliads, one poem

Homer's Iliad opens with a single Greek word, mēnin, "wrath", and every translator since the Renaissance has had to decide how to carry that word, and the 15,700 lines that follow, into English. The choices they made tell you as much about English poetry as about Homer.

The Poetry Codex holds ten of these versions, all in the public domain, all complete. Some are great English poems in their own right. Some are plain working translations, made to help readers follow the Greek. None is the "right" one. The best translation is the one that suits what you want from the poem.

Below we take them in order of publication, with the opening lines of Book 1 from each, so you can hear the difference for yourself.

The verse translations

George Chapman (1611)

Chapman's Iliad was the first complete English translation of the poem from the Greek. George Chapman wrote it in fourteeners: long rhyming couplets of seven stresses a line, which give the poem a loping, ballad-like energy. He is not literal. He expands, moralises and sometimes adds whole phrases, but he is never dull.

Achilles’ baneful wrath resound, O Goddess, that impos’d
Infinite sorrows on the Greeks, and many brave souls los’d.

Read Chapman for the sake of John Keats, whose sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" records the shock of meeting Homer through this version. Keats could not read Greek; Chapman gave him the poem, and the sonnet is the most famous tribute any translator has received. The Elizabethan English takes some effort, so this is a second or third Iliad, not a first.

Thomas Hobbes (1676)

Hobbes's Iliad is a curiosity worth knowing. The philosopher of Leviathan published it in his late eighties, in rhymed quatrains of pentameter. It is brisk, compressed and often flat, and our text keeps the 1676 spelling.

O Goddess, sing what woe the discontent
Of Thetis Son brought to the Greeks; what Souls
Of Heroes down to Erebus it sent,

It suits readers interested in the seventeenth century, or in Hobbes himself, rather than readers who want Homer's grandeur.

Alexander Pope (1715–1720)

Pope's Iliad is the great English poem among the Iliads. Alexander Pope cast Homer in heroic couplets, rhymed pairs of pentameter lines, polished to a high Augustan shine. He tidies Homer's repetitions, heightens his speeches and turns his gods into something close to eighteenth-century grandees. As a record of what Homer said line by line, it is loose; as English verse, it is magnificent.

Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess, sing!

Read Pope if you love English poetry, if you are studying the eighteenth century, or if you want an Iliad that sounds like a classic of its own language. The work made his fortune and his reputation.

William Cowper (1791)

Cowper's Iliad was a deliberate reply to Pope. William Cowper thought rhyme had forced Pope away from Homer, so he used Miltonic blank verse, unrhymed and closer to the Greek. Our text is the 1860 New York edition of Robert Southey's text.

Achilles sing, O Goddess! Peleus’ son;
His wrath pernicious, who ten thousand woes
Caused to Achaia’s host,

The Latinate word order can be stiff, but Cowper is more faithful than Pope and still a real poet. He suits readers who want verse without rhyme's distortions.

Edward, Earl of Derby (1864)

Derby's Iliad is Victorian blank verse by a man who was three times Prime Minister. It was widely read in its day, and it remains smooth, dignified and readable.

Of Peleus’ son, Achilles, sing, O Muse,
The vengeance, deep and deadly; whence to Greece
Unnumbered ills arose;

Derby suits readers who want a verse Iliad that moves easily, in English that is old-fashioned but not hard.

Arthur S. Way (1886–88)

Way's Iliad is the most unusual of the verse versions: rhymed couplets in long, swinging anapaestic lines, with a strong archaic colouring. Way, a prolific classical translator, also made versions of the Odyssey and the Argonautica that the Codex holds.

THE wrath of Achilles the Peleus-begotten, O Song-queen, sing,
Fell wrath, that dealt the Achaians woes past numbering;

It has real momentum, and some readers love its galloping rhythm. Others find the diction ("Song-queen", "fowls of ravin") gets in the way. Try a book before committing.

The prose translations

Theodore Alois Buckley (1873 printing)

Buckley's Iliad is a literal prose crib of the old school, made to sit beside the Greek and help students construe it. Like several older versions it uses the Roman names of the gods (Jove, Latona), and it marks some words and passages in square brackets.

Sing, O goddess, the destructive wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus, which brought countless woes upon the Greeks,

It suits students checking their own reading of the Greek. For reading for pleasure, Murray or Butler does the same job better.

Samuel Butler (1898)

Butler's Iliad is plain, brisk, modern-sounding prose by the author of Erewhon, who wanted Homer to read like a good story rather than a monument. He too uses Roman names (Jove, Juno), which may surprise readers used to Zeus and Hera.

Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.

Butler is the easiest Iliad in the archive to read straight through, and a fine choice if you simply want to know what happens.

Lang, Leaf and Myers (1911)

The Lang–Leaf–Myers Iliad was for decades the standard English prose version. Walter Leaf translated Books 1–9, Andrew Lang Books 10–16 and Ernest Myers Books 17–24, and the three revised the whole together. Their English is deliberately archaic, coloured by the King James Bible, and very close to the Greek.

Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles Peleus’ son, the ruinous wrath that brought on the Achaians woes innumerable,

It suits readers who want accurate prose with a sense of antiquity and dignity. Passages the translators thought were later additions are kept in square brackets.

A. T. Murray (Loeb, 1924)

Murray's Iliad was made for the Loeb Classical Library, printed facing the Greek text. It is literal, careful prose that keeps Homer's word order where English allows, and it uses the Greek names of the gods.

The wrath sing, goddess, of Peleus' son, Achilles, that destructive wrath which brought countless woes upon the Achaeans,

Notice how Murray, like Homer, puts "wrath" first. That fidelity is why our Iliad study guide quotes from this version, and why the Codex text is mapped to the line numbers of the Greek. When a critic or a teacher cites "Iliad 1.1–7" or "22.395", you can find the passage at once.

Our recommendations

For a first reading, choose Murray. It is accurate, readable and tied to the Greek line numbers, so it works with every commentary, lecture and essay you are likely to meet. If you read only one Iliad, read this one.

For plain prose, choose Lang–Leaf–Myers or Butler. Lang–Leaf–Myers if you like a grave, Biblical tone and close accuracy; Butler if you want speed and everyday English.

For English poetry, choose Pope. It is not the most faithful Iliad, but it is the one that changed English literature, and its couplets are a pleasure to read aloud.

For Keats's sake, choose Chapman. Read the sonnet first, then a book of Chapman, and you will understand why a young poet compared the experience to discovering a new planet.

For something different, try Cowper, Derby or Way, each a serious verse Iliad with its own music, and dip into Hobbes and Buckley as period pieces.

A good habit, whichever you choose: read a key scene in two versions side by side. The quarrel in Book 1, Hector and Andromache in Book 6, or Priam's visit to Achilles in Book 24 will show you more about translation than any essay.

Where to go next

Start with our Iliad study guide, which gives a summary of all 24 books, notes on the characters, themes and similes, the main scholarly debates and questions for discussion. Then open the version that suits you from the Homer page, and when you have finished, the Odyssey guide is waiting.