The Iliad

The Stephen Mitchell Translation

By: Homer, Stephen Mitchell - translator

Narrated by: Alfred Molina

Tolstoy called The Iliad a miracle; Goethe said it always thrust him into a state of astonishment.

Homer's story is thrilling, and his Greek is perhaps the most beautiful poetry ever sung or written. But until now, even the best English translations haven't been able to recreate the energy and simplicity, the speed, grace, and pulsing rhythm of the original.

In Stephen Mitchell's The Iliad, the epic story resounds again across 2,700 years, as if the lifeblood of its heroes Achilles and Patroclus, Hector, and Priam flows in every word. And we are there with them, amid the horror and ecstasy of war, carried along by a poetry that lifts even the most devastating human events into the realm of the beautiful.

Mitchell's The Iliad is the first translation based on the work of the preeminent Homeric scholar Martin L. West, whose edition of the original Greek identifies many passages that were added after The Iliad was first written down, to the detriment of the music and the story. Omitting these hundreds of interpolated lines restores a dramatically sharper, leaner text. In addition, Mitchell's illuminating introduction opens the epic still further to our understanding and appreciation. Now, thanks to Stephen Mitchell's scholarship and the power of his language, the ancient story of The Iliad comes to moving, vivid new life.

©2011 Stephen Mitchell (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Best Translation

I love this translation of The Iliad. I love Stephen Mitchell’s translation and the introduction he provides to help understand this epic story. I especially like his rational for Helen of Troy not being physically with Paris. This perspective adds more interest and bewilderment to why the way took place. Stephen Mitchell provides so many other great points of perspective too in his introduction. I highly recommend this translation for this piece of literature.