The Iliad

Penguin Classics

By: Homer, E. V. Rieu, D. C. H. Rieu, Peter Jones

Narrated by: Steve John Shepherd

Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Steve John Shepherd, whose theatre credits include Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe, The Good Canary directed by John Malkovich, Bomber's Moon and Piaf. His TV and film credits range from the iconic This Life to Silent Witness and Eastenders. This definitive recording includes an introduction by E. V. Rieu.

One of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer's Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode in the Trojan War. At its centre is Achilles, the greatest warrior-champion of the Greeks and his refusal to fight after being humiliated by his leader Agamemnon. But when the Trojan Hector kills Achilles's close friend Patroclus, he storms back into battle to take revenge - although knowing this will ensure his own early death. Interwoven with this tragic sequence of events are powerfully moving descriptions of the ebb and flow of battle, of the domestic world inside Troy's besieged city of Ilium and of the conflicts between the Gods on Olympus as they argue over the fate of mortals.

Public Domain (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Slow Start, Strong Finish

I didn't follow as well as I should have during the first few hours. I had to stop and read about much of the context that I didn't understand.

by the second half of the narrative, I was hooked. The action and violence was surprising, but the development of the characters was clear and I connected to their plight.

I'm happy that I listened. Now on to the Odyssey and then the Aneid.

wonderful!

It was a great retelling of my favorite epic. I enjoyed the notes at the end, it was nice to have the academic analysis at the end of the story...which is a story I have always watched in my head. Also, the narrator has a fantastic voice for telling this story.

Excellent

I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated this book. It was perfectly narrated as I followed along reading every single word.

Not word for word

A must-read for the masculine male. Though not word for word the monologues and dictation for the rituals are intact. a must-read for the Olympian theologian

The fickle hands of fate

no spoilers here, not that you can with a work so widely known and cherished. it's raw, its alive, it's telling of all that's in the heavens for man above between and below. no wonder it's required reading in uni. here, we've inspired and engaging narration, hurling you through the hallowed annals of time. landing as it were on the most celebrated battlefield of antiquity. we are so blessed that the Greeks took literature so seriously. present day society would be at an utter loss without these moments in myth and history preserved to help guide us. an entertaining and engrossing look into man's wrestling with greater will than his own, it's consequences and conclusion. that you should come to love this work, is inevitable even at half a wit......

Classic of classics

A must listen. The reader was fantastic. I can’t imagine reading the Illiad without the narrators voice in my head

Wonderful.

This book is worthy of the classic title. I’ve rarely enjoyed a school book this much.

The greatest book Mankind has to offer.

A great take that captures both the best and worst of humanity
The savagery and nobility.
Genius and captivating. A the novel to behold.
all my homies read the Illiad

Very well done.

A very understandable yet artistic translation combined with an excellent reading, balancing well both narration and emotion.

Well, this is awkward.

I remember reading the Iliad in high school, but it HAD to be an abridged version, some creative children’s version with expanded content and a fraction of the graphic violence. I thought the story started with the episode between the goddesses, Paris, and the golden apple, but it starts with the feud between Agamemnon and Achilles when Agamemnon stole Achilles’s prize woman, Briseis. Ironically, Briseis is stolen goods from a city that Achilles sacked before the story began.

Secondly, YOU NEVER GET TO THE FREAKING HORSE. Like. What the crap. According to the translator’s notes in the introduction, the Iliad only covers 50 days of a 10 year war. While if feels like you begin in the middle of the story (because, ahem, you do), it also feels like you don’t actually finish the story (because, really, you don’t).

Some notes on the translation:
Writing a review of a millennia old translated work is tough because— is it the story you didn’t like or the way the editor chose to translate it? From my experience studying varying translations of ancient Hebrew and Greek from the Bible, I understand that translators have a tough job. Do you translate every word as precisely as possible, or do you make the script more palatable for readers of a different language, culture, and millennia? In this case, I wish the translator had been more creative. Homer’s pattern of assigning descriptors for different characters (grey-eyed Athene, Zeus who drives the storm clouds, or others) should have been helpful to keep track of who was who, but it came off as monotonous. At other times, he wasn’t consistent with the designators. Multiple characters were called godlike or grey-eyed, and it was confusing. Overall, I’m glad I read it, but I won’t be rereading this anytime soon.