Delphi Complete Works of Homer (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 2) Kindle Edition

Some of the most famous translations of the Greek poet Homer into English belong to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but Homer in translation sometimes seems to have become a modern (minor) industry, with new entries every few years. Wikipedia lists about fifty English translations of one or both poems in the nineteenth century, and about forty translations in the twentieth century. A short list of the better-known translators would include, for both the Iliad and the Odyssey, Samuel Butler, Andrew Lang, W.H.D. Rouse, E.V. Rieu, Richmond Lattimore, Robert Fitzgerald, and Bernard Fagles. And there has been a market for them, outside of Required Reading Lists.As usual for Delphi Classics collections, "The Complete Works of Homer" is a well-formatted, usefully linked, reasonably-priced compilation of material which is usually, but not always, to be found piecemeal elsewhere on the web. It comes with lists of the casts of characters in the great epics, and a guide to pronouncing Greek, which looks helpful. (I've read so many of these over the years, based on different theories of Greek pronunciation and "correct" Anglicization, they tend to blur in my mind.....)As with other Delphi omnibus collections, it offers unexpected bonuses.As a major feature, it includes not just the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" in several translations, and the so-called "Homeric Hymns," but the old Loeb Classical Library translation of fragments of classical `Homerica,' material supposed to be by, or in one case about, the ancient Poet.Given two centuries of controversy over whether Homer was one man, two, a woman, a corporation, or a tradition, quibbling over bits and pieces considered "pseudo-Homeric" may seem an idle occuptation, but all of these are clearly linguistically later than the two great epics (although some are still quite early). Barring some discoveries in ancient papyri, and the ancient "Lives" of Homer, which are included in more recent Loeb volumes of Homerica and Ancient Epic Fragments, this amounts to as complete a representation of the ancient world's "Homer" as possible.In addition, along with the translations of the Odyssey, the Delphi collection also includes Charles Lamb's 1800 retelling for children, "The Adventures of Ulysses." (It was, obviously, written before the customary use of Latin names for the gods and heroes had given way to the general use Greek forms -- a change Andrew Lang was still reluctant to accept at the end of the Victorian era, not without reason.)The package closes with Greek texts of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Hymns (sources unspecified, although the Hymns presumably come from Evelyn-White's volume for Loeb)The selection of material is generally so good that one, seemingly inexplicable, omission is annoying.There are no less than seven translations of the Iliad provided, four of which I consider outstanding in terms of historical importance and literary quality.These four are:(1) the Elizabethan (or Jacobean) version by George Chapman (1559-1634), a dramatist, whose translation was published in parts, 1611-15, and much later celebrated by Keats in a famous sonnet.(2) Alexander Pope (1688-1744), in collaboration with others, published in 1715; "a very pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer," according to the most distinguished English classicist of the time.(3) the late Victorian effort of Samuel Butler (1835-1902) to give English readers with no Greek the "real" Homer, published in 1898, and frequently reprinted.(4) the 1883 collaborative translation by Andrew Lang (1844-1912), Walter Leaf (1852-1927), and Ernest Myers (1844-1921), which went through numerous slightly revised editions, and once seemed, by way of a Modern Library "Homer: Complete Works," volume, to have been on the shelf of every American library. I presume they had a similarly wide distribution in Britain in the early twentieth century; W.H.D. Rouse's translations into then-current English in the late 1930s were in part a rejection of the King James Version style of Lang and his collaborators. (What I find objectionable is that, in Lang et al.'s attempts to match the varied Homeric vocabulary with varied translations they sometimes introduce unwanted technical distinctions: e.g., "helm," "helmet," and "casque," which should refer to different, and specific, types of protection for the head. This can mislead readers who look up the unfamiliar words in a good dictionary!)The three remaining Iliad translations are:(1) William Cowper (1731-1800, better known for his hymns) 1791.(2) Theodore A. Buckley (1825-1856) 1851.(3) Edward Smith-Stanley (Fourteenth Earl of Derby, 1799-1869) 1864. These were unknown to me, even in citations, until they began appearing on-line some years back, thanks in part to Project Gutenberg. They all look interesting, but seem out-matched in this company.The Odyssey seems to be slighted in comparison. The translation by Chapman is not included (the omission mentioned above), although those by Pope (1725), Cowper (1791), and Butler (1900) are included, along with the 1879 collaboration of Andrew Lang and S.H. Butcher (1850-1910). And, as noted above, there is Charles Lamb's retelling, instead of a fifth (and sixth and seventh) translation,Omission of Chapman's 1615 Odyssey is notable because it has been the subject of modern study, including "Homeric Renaissance: The Odyssey of George Chapman," by George de Forest Lord (1956), copies of which are sometimes available through Amazon, and elsewhere. It tries to explain what Chapman thought the poem was really about (Renaissance moral allegories), and why he translated Homer the way he did. [Addendum: for those deeply interested in Chapman's Homer, I suggest a Kindle Book from Wordsworth Classics of Literature series, the cover of which identifies it as "Chapman's Homer. The Iliad and the Odyssey". The Amazon title, however, is just "The Iliad and the Odyssey," which makes it a bit hard to find.]The whole Delphi Ancient Classics package, however, and its presentation, are more than worth the price.

I was looking for an affordable kindle version of both the Illiad and the Oddessey. I have the physical books so I didn't want to spend the money twice, but I wanted a portable version that I can read anywhere. This does the trick! Some of the translations are older and a bit hard to read, but the Butler version is very easy to read and actually keeps me interested! I highly recommend this collection!!!!

There are quite a few poor quality editions of Homer available for the Kindle. Some have no table of contents at all and/or are poorly formatted. The samples sometimes do not give you a single of the translation; only part of the introduction. This one has a generously-sized sample, which is enough to give you the idea that you wouldn't be wasting your $2.99I did not find this one easy to find in the listings, but I'm glad I eventually came across it, because it is much better than others I've seen. It has an easy-to-navigate table of contents and then nested tables of contents for each of the translations featured.From what the experts say, these would not be the best of the translations, but it is very good value for $2.99.I quite like Chapman and am looking forward to "looking into Chapman's Homer."I'm confident this version should at least meet the needs of beginners, like me.

The Homer here is a fantastic deal, if nothing else because of the many hours it would take to assemble it yourself, and then the advantage of having it all in one package.I like having them all in a single file because of the search capability.TOC is excellent, very readable formatting, everything works great. Nice photos too.By now, I have ended up purchasing almost every collection or complete words that Delphi Classics has to offer. Honestly, I have not seen a single OCR error or typo in dozens of hours of reading.

I bought this collection for the Greeks originals which are very nicely presented and easily navigated. For this alone, it's a great find. It also comes with multiple translations in verse and prose. Many of these are classics in themselves. I haven't had the opportunity to review these as of yet, so I cannot say anything about their presentation. But based on the Greek, this is a very promising collection indeed.

All the Delphi releases are great value and good quality, but this one stands out, bringing some truly great past translations all in one place.

I bought this edition of Homer's works after reading several books based in part on the Iliad & the Odyssey. I wanted to see how they matched up with the original genius. I really haven't gotten into the book yet, but it has all the translations that matter in both prose and poetical styles. Plus it has the original Greek texts, too.( although it's "greek" to me) g-ro-a-n!! These will be good for students of the Ancient Hellenes cultural heritage that western civilization is indebted to. All the characters are there, Helen, Priam, Menelaus, Agamemnon, and the whole Greek & Trojan armies. What can be better than that??

Excelente edición bellamente ilustrada. Además de la versión inglesa incluye el texto griego, y todo a un precio imbatible. Como siempre un diez a Delpi.

The greek text of this Delphi products is indeed unreadable as random letters in each word are substituted by a square character . It is a pity as otherwise this was a superb collection of classics ..... hope it is fixed in the near future in the meanwhile I do not dare order anything in greek anymore.....