| Title | Homer, The Iliad |
|---|---|
| Contributor | William Hutchings (author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0372.10 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0372/chapters/10.11647/obp.0372.10 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | William Hutchings |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2023-12-19 |
| Long abstract | Chapter 9 proposes that Pope’s translation of Homer’s Iliad can be fruitfully read as perhaps the most significant of all contributions to a cultural history of maintaining the tradition of epic. The key principle driving this endeavour is that the authentic voice of ancient epic should be preserved and made comprehensible for a readership living in the ethos of, and accustomed to the poetic modes of, a different world. Two passages, one from book eight and one from book twelve of the Iliad , are examined alongside versions by Sir John Denham (seventeenth century), William Cowper (later eighteenth century) and Alice Oswald (twenty-first century) to show how the inner voice of the original is maintained within living language. |
| Page range | pp. 99–112 |
| Print length | 14 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
William Hutchings was formerly Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Director of the Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning at the University of Manchester, UK and he is presently Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at that university. He now lectures regularly to public groups locally and nationally. He has a wealth of teaching experience on English Literature courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and is the editor of Andrew Marvell: Selected Poems, the author of The Poetry of William Cowper, and Literary Criticism: A Practical Guide for Students.