THE ANGER OF ACHILLES

Robert Graves' name- along with the recent Hellenic revival-should alert interest in this new translation of the Iliad. Unlike Richard Lattimore who recently made an excellent verse translation, and E. V. Rieu who made an excellent prose translation, Robert Graves combines a crisp, curt prose with snatches of verse for the more highly colored or religious passages. He has written an introduction which is full of new and provocative ideas— that Homer was satirical in his intention thereby classifying the Iliad with Shakespeare and Cervantes rather than Dante or Milton. As such, it is a book of entertainment rather than serious purpose, and for centuries it has suffered from the academic use to which it has been put. While these, and other points raised, are controversial- the translation is lucid and concise, the work of a scholar of some originality.