Download The Essential Iliad AudioBook Free
The classics are rapidly receding from public consciousness, and modern revisions of these, like the film O Brother, Where Art Thou, are in genuine danger of never being linked to their original inspiration. Noted classicist Stanley Lombardo breathes new lease of life into one of the most famous and beloved ancient works together with this engaging and vibrant sound performance of carefully selected excerpts of Homer's Iliad. This state-of-the-art compact disk recording provides high-quality usage of one of the biggest works in world literature.
“The most daring, rapid and colloquial translation of Homer’s Iliad that I know. Lombardo’s taut and punchy verse conveys admirably and accurately the excitement and desperation of the battle, the urgency of the commanders, the casual flashes of humor, the passion of Homer’s narrative and the vivid and subtle humanity of his characters.”—Richard Janko, University College, London
More than 3,000 years after the fall of Troy, here at last is a rendition of the Homeric epic that everybody can understand and appreciate. The earth can't hear Homer speak his own words, but Stanley Lombardo is another best thing. Reading his own acclaimed (abridged) translations, Lombardo's insightful rendition takes advantage of the rhythms and other poetic resources of everyday American speech. The effect provides cinematic and performance qualities to the time-honored poetry -- sharp scene cuts, dynamic language, urgency of the characters (human and divine). His virtuoso performance in these audiobooks reflects many years of experience before a wide variety of audiences -- beautifully paced, shaped, intoned, and acted throughout.
"The definitive English version of Homer for our time." -- Common Review
"The excellence of Lombardo's performance can't be lauded too much. There is no other translator of the world's greatest poetry that is also a world-class reader." -- Douglass Parker, University of Texas at Austin
"The ideal amount of involvement or detachment as each circumstance in the reading calls for." -- William Levitan, Grand Valley State University
"Remarkably true to the centrality of performance in Homer, the assorted pacing and tone, the clarity, speed, narrative drive, and moments of breathtaking beauty." -- Rachel Hadas, Rutgers University
"The grade of Stan's voice, which has an honest, unshowy American core, makes these performances sound fresh, intimate, and believable --very different from those theatricized oral interpretations that overplay the 'epic' note. Altogether this is as good as Homer gets in English." -- Richard P. Martin, Stanford University
STANLEY LOMBARDO is Professor of Classics at Kansas University.
