Usually considered to have been written down circa the 8th century BC, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, along with the Odyssey, another epic poem attributed to Homer which tells of Odysseus's experiences after the events of the Iliad. The Iliad ( / ˈ ɪ l i ə d/ Ancient Greek: Ἰλιάς, romanized: Iliás, Attic Greek: sometimes referred to as the Song of Ilion or Song of Ilium) is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Fagles.Outcome: Greek victory, destruction of Troy At the dedication, students and teachers paid tribute to Dr. On June 8, 2011, a resource center devoted to the study of the Classics was dedicated to Dr. He received a National Humanities Medal by the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fagles was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Fagles later undertook a new English translation of the Aeneid, which was published in November 2006. In 1997 he received the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for lifetime achievement in translation. In 1996, he received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his translation of the Odyssey.
He was the co-editor of Homer: A Collection of Critical Essays (1962) and Pope's Iliad and Odyssey (1967).įagles died at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, on March 26, 2008, from prostate cancer.įagles was nominated for the National Book Award in Translation and won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award of the Academy of American Poets in 1991 for his translation of the Iliad. In 1978, Fagles published I, Vincent: Poems from the Pictures of Van Gogh. Fagles's translations generally emphasize contemporary English phrasing and idiom but are faithful to the original as much as possible. In these last four, Bernard Knox authored the introduction and notes. He went on to publish translations of Sophocles's three Theban plays (1982), Homer's Iliad (1990) and Odyssey (1996), and Virgil's Aeneid (2006). In the 1970s, Fagles began translating much Greek drama, beginning with Aeschylus's The Oresteia. His first translation was of the poetry of Bacchylides, publishing a complete set in 1961. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature in 2002, and remained a professor emeritus at Princeton.īetween 19, Fagles translated many ancient Greek works. He retired from teaching as the Arthur W.
In 1970, he became a full professor, and from 1975 was the department chair. Later that year he became director of the comparative literature program. In 1962 he was promoted to assistant professor, and in 1965 became an associate professor of English and comparative literature. In 1959, Fagles received his Ph.D in English from Yale and for the next year taught English there.įrom 1960 to 1962, Fagles was an English instructor at Princeton University. On June 17, 1956, he married Marilyn (Lynne) Duchovnay, a teacher, and they had two children.
The following year, he received his master's degree from Yale University. He attended Amherst College, graduating in 1955 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Fagles was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Charles Fagles, a lawyer, and Vera Voynow Fagles, an architect.