ILIADS

Left to right: Memorial: A Version of Homer's Iliad by Alice Oswald; The Iliad by Homer, translated by Caroline Alexander; War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad by Christopher Logue.

---

My reading of The Iliad is much slower than that of The Odyssey. But that is primarily due to me reading through three different texts. Caroline Alexander's translation of The Iliad is the anchor text, with forays into Memorial and (now that it has arrived) War Music—both poetic renderings that take liberties with Homer's words.

---

War Music is the most intriguing of the three to me right now, but that is primarily due to its newness, since I've read Memorial multiple times and The Iliad in other translations, as well as its difference.

---

War Music (2016) collects the various volumes of Iliad-related poetry that Christopher Logue published as part of a lifelong project—Kings: An Account of Books 1 and 2 of Homer's Iliad (1991); The Husbands: An Account of Books 3 and 4 of Homer's Iliad (1995); All Day Permanent Red (2003, Books 5 and 6); Cold Calls (2005, Books 7, 8, and 9); War Music (1981, which itself collected Patrocleia, 1962, Book 16; GBH, 1981, Books 17 and 18; and Pax, 1969, Book 19); and various fragments of Books 10-24 that would have eventually been published as Big Men Falling a Long Way, if Mr. Logue had not fallen extremely ill and died a few years later. Those fragments also include the untitled poem based on Book 21 that started all of this with its publication in 1959.

I'm glad to have all of these Homeric musings in one volume!

---

Now to read!