The Best Translation of The Iliad
The Iliad was written in Ancient Greek. 2 recommended editions, ranked — with Gröblé’s verdict on which to read first.
Robert Fagles
Penguin Classics · 1990 · 704 pages
The most readable modern Iliad. Fagles keeps Homer's weight and momentum without sounding archaic, and the speeches still hit. When someone says they've read the Iliad, this is usually what they read.
Every recommended edition, compared
Pope's 1715 version is its own thing. Heroic couplets, every line tuned to a sheen. You're not reading Homer here, you're reading Pope reading Homer, which happens to be one of the great English poems. Not the place to start.
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Reading The Iliad in translation
The Iliad was written in Ancient Greek, so unless you read Ancient Greek, the translator decides the book you actually experience — its register, its pace, how it sounds read aloud. Two editions of the same work can feel like different books.
The ranking above is Gröblé’s: one reader’s verdict on which English gets you closest, not a publisher’s blurb. Start with the top pick; reach for the others when you want a different angle on the original.