The Iliad Homer Translation by Emily Wilson

Some stories have been waiting three thousand years to find you. This is one of them.

When Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey appeared in 2017—revealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that was “fresh, unpretentious and lean” (Madeline Miller, Washington Post)—critics called it “a revelation” (Susan Chira, New York Times) and “a cultural landmark” (Charlotte Higgins, Guardian). Now she’s back with an equally stunning translation of Homer’s other great epic: the most revered war poem ever written.

The Iliad roars. With the clamor of arms, the boasts of victors, the fury and grief of loss, the cries of dying men. But it sings, too—of the fierce beauty of the natural world and the grand, unknowable schemes of the gods.

In Wilson’s hands, this thrilling, magical, and often harrowing tale gallops. Her crisp, resonant language honors the poem’s deep pathos while giving us characters—both human and divine—who feel palpably, complicatedly real. This is the culmination of a decade spent living inside antiquity’s most gorgeous and emotionally complex poetry.

Together with her Odyssey, this Iliad gives us a complete Homer for our generation.

We think it’s the perfect companion for a gray, salty afternoon—the kind where the wind rattles the windows and you’ve got nowhere to be but here, in a good chair, with the ocean just beyond the pages.

Come linger a while. This one’s worth the browse.

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