War, glory, despair, and mourning: for 2,700 years, the Iliad has gripped listeners and readers with the story of Achilles' anger and Hector's death. It is a tale of many truths, powerful emotions, the failures of leadership, the destructive power of beauty, the quest for fame, the plight of women, and the cold, callous laughter of the gods. Above all, it confronts us with war in all its brutality--and with fleeting images of peace, lovingly drawn, images which punctuate the poem as distant memories, startling comparisons, and doomed aspirations. That listeners and readers have returned to the Iliad, generation after generation, is a testament to its extraordinary power as the greatest of all epic poems.

Anthony Verity's elegant and compelling new translation mirrors the directness, power, and dignity of Homer's poetry. Verity captures the essential features of oral poetry, such as repeated phrases and scenes, without sounding mannered or archaic, and his remarkably accurate verse hews closely to the original line numbers, invaluable for readers wishing to consult the secondary literature.