Which Iliad Translation Should You Read?
Real, currently-published English translations compared — plus the free public-domain one you can start reading on this site right now.
Short answer: Robert Fagles's translation (Penguin Classics) is the standard choice for most readers today — energetic, highly readable free verse, and the edition most university courses assign. Emily Wilson's 2023 translation (Norton) is the newest and most acclaimed, praised for its pace and fresh contemporary voice. Richmond Lattimore's translation (University of Chicago Press), in print since 1951, is the classic academic standard, valued for how closely it follows Homer's Greek line by line. If you want to read it tonight for free, Alexander Pope's 18th-century verse translation (the one on this site) is a landmark of English poetry in its own right — though its rhymed couplets read very differently from Homer's original meter.
| Translator | Edition | Style | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Pope FREE |
1715-1720, public domain (widely reprinted) | Rhymed heroic couplets; a landmark of English poetry, but a very different meter from Homer's own | First-time readers who want to start today, for free, and readers of English poetry itself |
| Robert Fagles | Penguin Classics, ISBN 978-0-14-027536-0 | Muscular free verse, praised for readability; the long-standing default recommendation | Most first-time readers today; most university survey courses |
| Emily Wilson | W. W. Norton, 2023, ISBN 978-1-324-00180-5 | Fast-moving contemporary verse; the newest and most widely discussed translation | Readers who want the most acclaimed recent translation |
| Richmond Lattimore | University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-46940-9 | Close, line-by-line fidelity to the Greek; the long-standing academic standard | Students and readers who want the translation closest to Homer's actual lines |
Alexander Pope (1715-1720) — read it free right now
Pope's Iliad, written in rhymed heroic couplets, was itself a major literary achievement of 18th-century English poetry — Samuel Johnson called it "a performance which no age or nation could hope to equal." It reads more like Pope's own poetry than a literal rendering of Homer's Greek, but it's a genuine, complete, historically important translation that costs nothing to start reading.
Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics)
Fagles's translation, with an introduction by classicist Bernard Knox, won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award and has been the edition most commonly assigned and recommended since it was published — praised for a lyrical, dramatic style that keeps the battle scenes moving without losing the poem's scale.
Emily Wilson (W. W. Norton)
Wilson's 2023 translation, her follow-up to her acclaimed Odyssey, was named one of The New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2023 and a Washington Post Best Book of the Year — reviewed for how directly and urgently it reads compared to earlier verse translations, and the edition most likely to come up in any current discussion of the poem.
Richmond Lattimore (University of Chicago Press)
Lattimore's translation has been the go-to choice in classics departments for over 70 years, prized for tracking Homer's Greek line-for-line more closely than the freer, more colloquial modern verse translations — a deliberately different reading experience for readers who want to stay as close as possible to the original structure.
As an Amazon Associate, MyBookPDF earns from qualifying purchases. The Iliad is free to read in the Pope translation on this site; the other editions are paid and the links above are optional.
Translator, publisher, and ISBN details checked against publisher and retailer listings, September 2026. Publishers periodically issue new print runs of the same translation under new cover editions; the ISBNs above identify the specific edition described.
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