Iliade
- Author
- Vincenzo Monti
- Date
- 1810
- Language
- Italian
- Country
- First published
- Iliade (Italian version of Homer’s Iliad), Book I, 1810
The source
Cantami, o Diva, del Pelìde Achille
l'ira funesta che infiniti addusse
lutti agli Achei, molte anzi tempo all'Orco
generose travolse alme d'eroi,
e di cani e d'augelli orrido pasto
lor salme abbandonò (così di Giove
l'alto consiglio s'adempìa), da quando
primamente disgiunse aspra contesa
il re de' prodi Atride e il divo Achille.
Commentary
Dr. Ruxandra RouxHead of Literary Research & Development
Vincenzo Monti, 1810: the Italian Iliad, Book I here. Monti is the Italian voice of Homer for generations of schoolchildren, and he is famous, a little notorious, for not reading Greek well: he worked largely from Latin and Italian versions. His genius was the Italian.
The first word that matters is l'ira: wrath. Not a hero, not a war. An anger, “funesta”, deadly, that sent countless griefs to the Achaeans and threw heroic souls to Hades before their time, their bodies left as a “grim feast” for dogs and birds, while Zeus's plan ran its course. The cause is a quarrel between two men, the king Agamemnon and Achilles. In nine lines you have the whole plot: an argument between two men ruins thousands. Epic does not begin with the hero. It begins with the damage.
Songs
The song made from Iliade.
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