EL336: WM Homer

Page 192: "We do know that t he poems bear the hallmarks of orally composed poetry; Homer uses careful patterning and scripts, repetition and balance, and formulaic or set phrases that aid recall."

I find this interesting because even before the extensive use of writing, tools were implemented as memory aids for oral communication. Writing is the main strategy in our everyday lives which helps us remember important information. The "oral poetic conventions" Homer uses in Iliad included repetition of key words, storytelling, and rhyming, of course.

On to the translations...

The Lattimore version I can barely understand. The language Homer (I know it's a translation but it's the closest to Homer's version) uses is so uncommon in today's culture that it almost makes the poem unreadable to me. There's a flowery excess of words that was no doubt common in his time that makes my mind ache while reading it. I feel the need to have a dictionary present with me at all times when I read Homer. Thanks to AP English in high school, when I look at poetry I automatically want to examine it line by line for any patterning the author may have done intentionally. I found nothing exceptionally special with Lattimore's translation- each line was somewhere between 13 and 17 syllables, the majority being 13 and 14, respectively. I didn't find anything in the language that particularly struck me.

Fagles translation was much more my style. I could instantly tell that it's more focused on rhythm as the text says. When I broke the syllables down per line there were only two which weren't either 10 or 11 in length.

I suppose I notice an abundance of "s" and "r" sounds in both translations. I could be over-thinking that though.