The Iliad of Homer (Alexander Pope)

The Iliad of Homer was a poetic interpretation of the original Homeric poem undertaken by Alexander Pope, published serially from 1715 to 1720. It was followed by Pope's similar interpretation of The Odyssey of Homer in 1725.

Book I
Of all the Grecian woes, O goddess sing!
 * The wrath of Peleus' son, the direful spring
 * Line 1. Pope's first translation. A later revision can be found in Bartlett's Quotations, 10th ed. (1919): "Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring / Of woes unnumber'd, heavenly goddess, sing!"

Instruct a monarch where his error lies.
 * Bold is the task, when subjects, grown too wise,
 * Line 103.


 * The distant Trojans never injur'd me.
 * Line 200.


 * Thou dog in forehead, but in heart a deer!
 * Line 298.


 * Words sweet as honey from his lips distill'd.
 * Line 332.

The stamp of fate, and sanction of the god.
 * Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod,—
 * Line 684.


 * And unextinguish'd laughter shakes the skies.
 * Line 771. The same line occurs in Pope's translation of the Odyssey, Book VIII, line 366.

Book II
Swept to the war, the lumber of a land.
 * Ye gods, what dastards would our host command?
 * Line 239.

The moving squadrons blacken all the strand.
 * Thick as autumnal leaves or driving sand,
 * Line 970.

Book III
But wise through time, and narrative with age, In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice — A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice.
 * Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage,
 * Line 199.


 * She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen.
 * Line 208; of Helen of Troy.

Himself a host.
 * Ajax the great…
 * Line 293.


 * Plough the watery deep.
 * Line 357.

Book IV
Which Troy's proud glories in the dust shall lay, When Priam's powers and Priam's self shall fall, And one prodigious ruin swallow all.
 * The day shall come, that great avenging day,
 * Line 196.


 * First in the fight and every graceful deed.
 * Line 295.


 * The first in banquets, but the last in fight.
 * Line 401.


 * Gods! How the son degenerates from the sire!
 * Line 451.


 * With all its beauteous honours on its head.
 * Line 557.

Book V

 * A wealthy priest, but rich without a fault.
 * Line 16.

Such men as live in these degenerate days.
 * Not two strong men the enormous weight could raise,—
 * Line 371. A similar line occurs in Book XX, line 337: "A mass enormous! which in modern days / No two of earth's degenerate sons could raise".


 * Whose little body lodg'd a mighty mind.

Book VI
Fast by the road, his ever-open door Obliged the wealthy, and relieved the poor.
 * He held his seat,—a friend to human race.
 * Line 18.

Now green in youth, now withering on the ground; Another race the following spring supplies: They fall successive, and successive rise.
 * Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,
 * Line 181. Compare: "As of the green leaves on a thick tree, some fall, and some grow", Ecclesiasticus xiv, 18.


 * Inflaming wine, pernicious to mankind.
 * Line 330.


 * If yet not lost to all the sense of shame.
 * Line 350.


 * 'Tis man's to fight, but Heaven's to give success.
 * Line 427.


 * The young Astyanax, the hope of Troy.
 * Line 467.

My father, mother, brethren, all, in thee.
 * Yet while my Hector still survives, I see
 * Line 544.

Pressed with a load of monumental clay!
 * May I lie cold before that dreadful day,
 * Line 590.


 * Andromache! my soul's far better part.
 * Line 624.

Book VII



 * He from whose lips divine persuasion flows.
 * Line 143.

And each brave foe was in his soul a friend.
 * Not hate, but glory, made these chiefs contend;
 * Line 364.


 * I war not with the dead.
 * Line 485.

Book VIII
Sprinkled with rosy light the dewy lawn.
 * Aurora now, fair daughter of the dawn,
 * Line 1.

Decline the head, and drooping kiss the plain, — So sinks the youth; his beauteous head, depress'd Beneath his helmet, drops upon his breast.
 * As full-blown poppies, overcharg'd with rain,
 * Line 371.

O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light, When not a breath disturbs the deep serene, And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene; Around her throne the vivid planets roll, And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole, O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed, And tip with silver every mountain's head; Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise, A flood of glory bursts from all the skies.
 * As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,
 * Line 687.

Book IX
My heart detests him as the gates of hell.
 * Who dares think one thing, and another tell,
 * Line 412. Note: The same line, with "soul" for "heart", occurs in Pope's translation of the Odyssey, Book XIV, line 181.

Not all Apollo's Pythian treasures hold, Or Troy once held, in peace and pride of sway, Can bribe the poor possession of a day.
 * Life is not to be bought with heaps of gold:
 * Line 524.


 * Short is my date, but deathless my renown.
 * Line 535.

Sweeps the wide earth, and tramples o'er mankind.
 * Injustice, swift, erect, and unconfin'd,
 * Line 628.

Burns with one love, with one resentment glows; One should our interests, and our passions, be; My friend must hate the man that injures me.
 * A generous friendship no cold medium knows,
 * Line 725.

Book X
And when Jove gave us life, he gave us woe.
 * To labour is the lot of man below;
 * Line 78.


 * Content to follow when we lead the way.
 * Line 141.


 * He serves me most, who serves his country best.
 * Line 201. Compare: "He serves his party best who serves the country best", Rutherford B. Hayes, Inaugural Address, March 5, 1877.

Are lost on hearers that our merits know.
 * Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe,
 * Line 293.

Book XI

 * The rest were vulgar deaths, unknown to fame.
 * Line 394.

Book XII
And asks no omen but his country's cause.
 * Without a sign his sword the brave man draws,
 * Line 283.

And give to fame what we to nature owe.
 * The life which others pay let us bestow,
 * Line 393.

Book XIII

 * And seem to walk on wings, and tread in air.
 * Line 106.


 * The best of things beyond their measure cloy.
 * Line 795.

Book XIV

 * To hide their ignominious heads in Troy.
 * Line 170.

Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.
 * Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,
 * Line 251.

Book XV

 * Heroes as great have died, and yet shall fall.
 * Line 157.


 * And for our country 'tis a bliss to die.
 * Line 583.

The brave live glorious, or lamented die; The wretch who trembles in the field of fame, Meets death, and worse than death, eternal shame.
 * On valour's side the odds of combat lie,
 * Line 655.


 * Like strength is felt from hope and from despair.
 * Line 852.

Book XVI

 * Two friends, two bodies with one soul inspir'd.
 * Line 267. Compare: "A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies", Diogenes Laërtius, On Aristotle; "Two souls with but a single thought, Two hearts that beat as one", Eligius Franz Joseph von Münch-Bellinghausen, Ingomar the Barbarian, act ii.

Of matchless swiftness, but of silent pace.
 * Sleep and Death, two twins of winged race,
 * Line 831.

Book XVII
Give me to see, and Ajax asks no more.
 * Dispel this cloud, the light of Heaven restore;
 * Line 730.


 * The mildest manners, and the gentlest heart.
 * Line 756.


 * In death a hero, as in life a friend!
 * Line 758.

Book XVIII
Beyond mankind, beyond myself, is slain!
 * Patroclus, lov'd of all my martial train,
 * Line 103.


 * I live an idle burden to the ground.
 * Line 134.

Book XIX

 * Ah, youth! forever dear, forever kind.
 * Line 303.

For thee, that ever felt another's woe!
 * Accept these grateful tears! for thee they flow,—
 * Line 319.

Book XX

 * Where'er he mov'd, the goddess shone before.
 * Line 127.


 * The matchless Ganymed, divinely fair.
 * Line 278. Compare: "Divinely fair", Alfred Tennyson, A Dream of Fair Women, XXII.

But Jove alone endues the soul with worth.
 * 'Tis fortune gives us birth,
 * Line 290.

Is not to question, but to prove our might.
 * Our business in the field of fight
 * Line 304.

No two of earth's degenerate sons could raise.
 * A mass enormous! which in modern days
 * Line 337. A similar line occurs in Book V, line 371: "Not two strong men the enormous weight could raise,/ Such men as live in these degenerate days".

Book XXII

 * The bitter dregs of fortune's cup to drain.
 * Line 85.


 * Who dies in youth and vigour, dies the best.
 * Line 100.

That man can feel.
 * This, this is misery! the last, the worst
 * Line 106.


 * No season now for calm familiar talk.
 * Line 169.

The fates of mortal men, and things below.
 * Jove lifts the golden balances that show
 * Line 271.

'Tis true I perish, yet I perish great: Yet in a mighty deed I shall expire, Let future ages hear it, and admire!
 * Then welcome fate!
 * Line 385.


 * Achilles absent was Achilles still.
 * Line 418.


 * Forever honour'd, and forever mourn'd.
 * Line 422.


 * Unwept, unhonour'd, uninterr'd he lies!
 * Line 484. Compare: "Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung", Sir Walter Scott, Lay of the Last Minstrel; "Unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown", Lord Byron, Childe Harold, canto iv. stanza 179.

In all the raging impotence of woe.
 * Grief tears his heart, and drives him to and fro
 * Line 526.


 * Sinks my sad soul with sorrow to the grave.
 * Line 543.

Book XXIII
Part of himself: the immortal mind remains.
 * 'Tis true, 'tis certain; man though dead retains
 * Line 122.


 * Base wealth preferring to eternal praise.
 * Line 368.

And to be swift is less than to be wise. 'Tis more by art than force of num'rous strokes.
 * It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize,
 * Line 383. Compare: "'Tis slight, not strength, that gives the greatest lift", Thomas Middleton, Michaelmas Term (1602), Act iv, Scene 1.

That proves the hero born in better days.
 * A green old age, unconscious of decays,
 * Line 929. Compare: "His hair just grizzled, As in a green old age", John Dryden, Œdipus, Act iii, Scene 1.

Book XXIV
The source of evil one, and one of good.
 * Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood,—
 * Line 663.


 * The mildest manners with the bravest mind.
 * Line 963.

Quotes about Pope's translation of the Iliad



 * [Pope's] translation of the Iliad will remain a lasting monument to his honour, as the most elegant and highly finished translation, that, perhaps, ever was given of any poetical work.
 * Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Vol. II (1783), Lecture XL: 'Didactic Poetry—Descriptive Poetry', p. 369.


 * I mentioned the vulgar saying, that Pope's Homer was not a good representation of the original. JOHNSON. "Sir, it is the greatest work of the kind that has ever been produced."
 * James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791), p. 207.


 * I have as yet read only to the end of the eighth Iliad; but, as far as I can judge, this is one of the finest translations in the English language; and, what is very extraordinary, it appears to the best advantage when compared with the original. I have read both carefully so far, and written remarks as I went along, and I think I can prove that, where Pope has omitted one beauty, he has added or improved four.
 * Philip Doddridge, in The Correspondence and Diary of Philip Doddridge, Vol. II (1829), ed. by J. D. Humphreys, p. 58.


 * The rights, powers, and pretensions of the sovereign of Olympus, are very clearly described in the xvth book of the Iliad: in the Greek original, I mean; for Mr. Pope, without perceiving it, has improved the theology of Homer.
 * Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), Note 4 on the Second Chapter, p. v.


 * [ Bentely] and Pope, soon after the publication of Homer, met at Dr. Mead's at dinner; when Pope, desirous of his opinion of the translation, addressed him thus: "Dr. Bentley, I ordered my bookseller to send you your books; I hope you received them." Bentley, who had purposely avoided saying any thing about Homer, pretended not to understand him, and asked, 'Books! books! what books?' 'My Homer,' replied Pope, 'which you did me the honour to subscribe for.'—'Oh,' said Bentley, 'ay, now I recollect—your translation:—it is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope; but you must not call it Homer. '
 * John Hawkins, The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Eleven Volumes, Vol. IV (1787), The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, "Life of Pope", footnote on p. 126.


 * It is certainly the noblest version of poetry which the world has ever seen; and its publication must therefore be considered as one of the great events in the annals of learning.
 * Samuel Johnson, "Life of Pope" (1781).


 * [A] poetical wonder ... a performance which no age or nation can pretend to equal.
 * Samuel Johnson, "Life of Pope" (1781).


 * [Pope] cultivated our language with so much diligence and art, that he has left in his Homer a treasure of poetical elegances to posterity. His version may be said to have tuned the English tongue; for since its appearance no writer, however deficient in other powers, has wanted melody. Such a series of lines so elaborately corrected, and so sweetly modulated, took possession of the publick ear; the vulgar was enamoured of the poem, and the learned wondered at the translation. [...] It is remarked by Watts, that there is scarcely a happy combination of words, or a phrase poetically elegant in the English language, which Pope has not inserted into his version of Homer. How he obtained possession of so many beauties of speech, it were desirable to know.
 * Samuel Johnson, "Life of Pope" (1781).


 * [Pope's] translation of the Iliad is the finest ever made.
 * Bernard Knox, Introduction to Robert Fagles' The Iliad (1991).


 * What terrible moments does one feel after one has engaged for a large work! In the beginning of my translating the Iliad, I wished any body would hang me a hundred times. It sat so heavily on my mind at first, that I often used to dream of it; and do so sometimes still. When I fell into the method of translating 30 or 40 verses before I got up, and piddled with it the rest of the morning, it went on easily enough; and when I was thoroughly got into the way of it, I did the rest with pleasure. [...] The Iliad took me up six years, and during that time, and particularly the first part of it, I was often under great pain and apprehensions. Though I conquered the thoughts of it in the day, they would frighten me in the night. I dreamed often of being engaged in a long journey, and that I should never get to the end of it. This made so strong an impression upon me, that I sometimes dream of it still; of being engaged in that translation, of having got about half way through it, and being embarrassed, and under dread of never completing it.
 * Alexander Pope, as quoted in Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters, of Books and Men (1820) by Joseph Spence [arranged, with notes, by the late Edmund Malone], pp. 28–29 & 53–54.


 * The famous Lord Hallifax (though so much talked of) was rather a pretender to taste, than really possessed of it.—When I had finished the two or three first books of my translation of the Iliad, that lord, "desired to have the pleasure of hearing them read at his house." Addison, Congreve, and Garth, were there at the reading.—In four or five places, Lord Hallifax stopped me very civilly; and with a speech, each time of much the same kind: "I beg your pardon, Mr. Pope, but there is something in that passage that does not quite please me.—Be so good as to mark the place, and consider it a little at your leisure.—I am sure you can give it a little turn."—I returned from Lord Hallifax's with Dr. Garth, in his chariot; and as we were going along, was saying to the doctor, that my lord had laid me under a good deal of difficulty, by such loose and general observations; that I had been thinking over the passages almost ever since, and could not guess at what it was that offended his lordship in either of them.—Garth laughed heartily at my embarrassment; said, I had not been long enough acquainted with Lord Hallifax, to know his way yet: that I need not puzzle myself in looking those places over and over when I got home. "All you need do, (said he) is to leave them just as they are; call on Lord Hallifax two or three months hence, thank him for his kind observations on those passages; and then read them to him as altered. I have known him much longer than you have, and will be answerable for the event."—I followed his advice; waited on Lord Hallifax some time after: said, I hoped he would find his objections to those passages removed[;] read them to him exactly as they were at first; and his lordship was extremely pleased with them, and cried out, "Ay now, Mr. Pope, they are perfectly right! nothing can be better."
 * Alexander Pope, as quoted in Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters, of Books and Men (1820) by Joseph Spence [published from the original papers; with notes, and a life of the author, by Samuel Weller Singer]; "Spence's Anecdotes", Section IV. 1734...36. pp. 134–136.