Iliad Project

The Iliad of Homer : 

The Iliad of Homer A Musical Interpretation by Theron Patrick

Notes Before Presentation : 

Notes Before Presentation Songs recorded with Gibson Les Paul or Fender Sonoran using GarageBand or Cockos Incorporated’s Reaper Guitar parts are unique recordings Loops/effects are royalty-free Only selected books Composed “orally” Translation of Iliad by Richard Lattimore copyright 1951 University of Chicago Press

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Enjoy!

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Book I “Majesty, son of Kronos, what sort of thing have you spoken? Truly too much in time past I have not questioned nor probed you, but you are entirely free to think out whatever pleases you. Now, though, I am terribly afraid you were won over by Thetis the silver-footed, the daughter of the sea’s ancient… …Then in return Zeus who gathers the clouds made answer: Dear lady, I never escape you, you are always full of suspicion…If what you say is true, then that is the way I wish it. But go then, sit down in silence, and do as I tell you, for fear all the gods…can do nothing if I come close and lay my unconquerable hands upon you” (I. 553-568) “ He spoke, and the goddess of the white arms Hera smiled at him, and smiling she accepted the goblet out of her son’s hand. Thereafter beginning from the left he poured drinks for the other gods, dipping up from the mixing bowl the sweet nectar…Thus thereafter the whole day long until the sun went under they feasted, nor was anyone’s hunger denied a fair portion, nor denied the beautifully wrought lyre in the hands of Apollo nor the antiphonal sweet sound of the Muses singing.” (I. 595-604). (Gods Discussing/Drinking Wine)

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Book II “Tell me now, you Muses who have your homes on Olympos. For you, who are goddesses, are there, and you know all things, and we have heard only the rumour of it and know nothing. Who then of those were the chief men and the lords of the Danaans?.. Leitos and Peneleos were leaders of the Boiotians, with Arkesilaos and Prothoenor and Klonios; they who lived in Hyria and in rocky Aulis, in the hill-bends of Eteonos, and Schoinos, and Skolos, Thespeia and Graia, and in spacious Mykalessos; they who dwelt about Harma and Eilesion and Erythrai, they who held Eleon and Hyle and Peteon, with Okalea and Medeon, the strong founded citadel, Kopai, and Eutresis, and Thisbe of the dove-cotes; they who held Koroneia, and the meadows of Haliartos, they who held Plataia, and they who dwelt about Glisa, they who held the lower Thebes, the strong-founded citadel, and Onchestos the sacred, the shining grove of Poseidon; they who held Arne of the great vineyards, and Mideia, with Nisa the sacrosanct and uttermost Anthedon. Of these there were fifty ships in all, and on board each of these a hundred and twenty sons of the Boiotians” (II. 484-510).

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Book VI “…I would feel deep shame before the Trojans, and the Trojan women with trailing garments, if like a coward I were to shrink aside from the fighting; and the spirit will not let me, since I have learned to be valiant and to fight always among the foremost ranks of the Trojans, winning for my own self great glory, and for my father. (VI. 441-446). “Andromache, stood close beside him, letting her tears fall, and clung to his hand and called him by name and spoke to him: ‘Dearest, your own great strength will be your death, and you have no pity on your little son, nor on me, ill-starred, who soon must be your widow, for presently the Achaians, gathering together, will set upon you and kill you; and for me it would be far better to sink into the earth when I have lost you, for there is no other consolation for me after you have gone to your destiny- only grief. (VI. 405-413). “’This is the wife of Hektor, who was ever the bravest fighter of the Trojans, breakers of horses, in the days when they fought about Ilion.’ So will one speak of you; and for you it will be yet a fresh grief, to be widowed of such a man who could fight off the day of your slavery. But may I be dead and the piled earth hide me under before I hear you crying and know by this they drag you captive” (VI. 460-465).

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Book IX “So these two [Odysseus and Ajax] walked along the strand of the sea deep-thundering with many prayers to the holder and shaker of the earth, that they might readily persuade the great heart of Achilleus. Now they came beside the shelters and ships of the Myrmidons and they found Achilleus delighting his heart in a lyre, clear-sounding, splendid and carefully wrought, with a bridge of silver upon it, which he won out of the spoils when he ruined Eetion’s city. With this he was pleasuring his heart, and singing of men’s fame, as Patroklos was sitting over against him, alone, in silence, watching Achilleus and the time he would leave off singing. Now these two came forward, as Brilliant Odysseus led them, and stood in his presence. Achilleus rose to his feet in amazement holding the lyre as it was, leaving the place where he was sitting…And in greeting Achilleus the swift of foot spoke to them: “Welcome. You are my friends who have come, and greatly I need you, who even to this my anger are dearest of all the Achaians” (IX. 182-197).

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Book X “These two went ahead on their way through war gear and dark blood and came suddenly to the Thracians for whom they were looking. These were asleep, worn out with weariness, and their armour lay in splendour and good order on the ground beside them in three rows, and beside each man stood his team of horses. Rhesos slept in the centre with his fast horses about him tethered by the reins to the outer rail of the chariot. ‘Here is our man, see, Diomedes, and here are his horses, those that Dolon, the man we killed, pointed out to us. Come then, put forward your great strength. Here is no matter for standing by idle in your weapons. Untie the horses; or else let me look after them, while you kill the people.’… He spoke, and grey-eyed Athene breathed strength into Diomedes and he began to kill them one after another. Grim sounds rose from there as they were stricken with the sword, and the ground reddened with blood.As a lion advancing on the helpless herds unshepherded of sheep or goats pounces upon them with wicked intention, so the son of Tydeus attacked the Thracian people until he had killed twelve…Meanwhile patient Odysseus was untying the single-foot horses, and pulled them together with reins, and drove them from the confusion and whipped them with his bow…(X.469-500). “…when [Hippokoon] saw the place left empty where the fast horses had been standing and his men in shambles of slaughter gasping their lives out, he groaned, and called aloud by name his beloved companion. And a clamour rose up from the Trojans and a vast turmoil as they swept together in confusion and stared at the ghastly work done by these two men, before they went back to their hollow vessels. But when these had come back to the place where they killed Hektor’s scout…Odysseus lashed [the horses] on, and they winged their way unreluctant back to the hollow ships, since this was the way he desired it (X. 520-531).

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Book XV “[Zeus] saw Hektor lying in the plain, his companions sitting around him, he dazed at the heart and breathing painfully, vomiting blood, since not the weakest Achaian had hit him…[Apollo] found brilliant Hektor, the son of wise Priam, sitting now, no longer sprawled, as he gathered new strength back into him and recognized his companions about him. The sweat and hard breathing had begun to stop, once the will in Zeus of the aegis wakened him” (XV. 9-11, 238-242). “So the Danaans stood steady against the Trojans, nor gave way. But [Hektor], lit about with flame on all sides, charged on their numbers and descended upon them as descends on a fast ship the battering wave storm-bred from beneath the clouds, and the ship goes utterly hidden under the foam, and the dangerous blast of the hurricane thunders against the sail, and the hearts of the seamen are shaken with fear, as they are carried only a little way out of death’s reach. So the heart in the breast of each Achaian was troubled. Hektor came on against them, as a murderous lion on cattle who in the low-lyrics meadow of a great marsh pasture by hundreds, and among them a herdsman who does not quite know how to fight a wild beast off from killing a horn-curved ox, and keeps pace with the first and the last of the cattle always, but the lion making his spring at the middle eats an ox as the rest stampede; so now the Achaians fled in unearthly terror before father Zeus and Hektor…(XV. 622-637). “But Patroklos, with a shout to Automedon and his horses, went after Trojans and Lykians in a huge blind fury. Besotted: had he only kept the command of Peleiades he might have got clear away from the evil spirit of black death. But always the mind of Zeus is a stronger thing than a man’s mind. He terrifies even the warlike man, he takes away victory lightly, when he himself has driven a man into battle as now he drove on the fury in the heart of Patroklos” (XVI. 684-691).