Homer
Iliad
Translated by a Graduate of the University of Oxford
1841
[Sample
from the Opening of the Poem]
Sing,
Goddess, the destructive wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus, which brought myriad
disasters upon the Achaeans, and sent many gallant souls of heroes to Hades, and
made themselves a prey to dogs and all birds of
prey for so the counsel of
Jove was fulfilled), from the time when, first, Atrides, king of men, and the
godlike Achilles, quarrelling with each other, separated.
Review Comment
This
translation, as Young points out (p. 128), strives to render the Greek as
literally as possible (“The Iliad of
Homer, translated into English Prose, as literally as the different idioms of
the Greek and English languages will allow; with explanatory notes”). The
translator, interestingly enough, complains about the hostility of scholars to
literal translations and about the drudgery of translation: “To translate the
poetry of one language into the prose of another, is, to say the least of it, an
irksome task, and necessarily obliges the translator to lay aside every elegance
in his composition. With
respect to Homer, in particular, these objectives are peculiarly strong” (qu.
Young 128). The
translator is careful to indicate any additions he has made to the poem (e.g.,
the phrase “of prey” placed in italics above).
The
identity of the translator is not clear. Young
lists an Odyssey (1797)
“translated into English prose, as literally as the different idioms of the
Greek and English languages will allow; with explanatory notes; by a member of
the University of Oxford” but notes that this is a “burlesque
translation.” He
lists the translator or author as Henry Francis Cary (1772-1844), famous later
in life as a translator of Dante. Biographies
of Cary, however, apparently fail to mention translations of the Iliad or
the Odyssey and,
so far as I can tell, library catalogues include no such translation among the
entries for Cary.
In
his bibliography Young lists Cary’s translation under the year 1821, but
earlier in book (128) says the translation appeared in 1841.
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