First step: the choice of publishing. After consulting the left and right, I concluded that the historical Paul Mazon translation is can not be perfect but is the best known and the one which serves as reference. So I bought the Book of pocket ... monumental error, there is no note and just a few introductory pages. I heartily recommend the edition of Louis Bardollet I chose Robert Laffont: afterwords it is accompanied with comments on each work of the translator, maps at different scales (do you know where are Thrace and Phrygia?) , an index of characters and objects or concepts that modern man can ignore, some explanations and justifications on how the translation was done (nothing to illuminate a Hellenist, but enough for a simple guy who is just curious ).
What to say about the work itself?
I discovered that it only tells the capture of Troy with the horse and I had a little trouble with lengthy descriptions of battle where each individual follows hero sword movement after movement of sword and spear after spear. I was amazed to see the Olympian gods behave like kids. That there is some splendid passages (Priam begging Achilles, Andromache despair ...).
In comparison, the Odyssey (which not only tells the adventures of Ulysses but also those of his son Telemachus) is more lively and surprisingly modern in its structure with changes of perspective and flashbacks, stories in story. The gods have more height, even the ubiquitous Athena.
Beyond these differences, we find pleasure in the two accounts of word pictures that take away the imagination and the key formulas that return and lull the reader (He undid the bond of its members ...). We also discover a different civilization, where we honor the Gods, where we welcomed and cherished the passing stranger.
I am a poor commentator, but go and discover for yourself these two founding narratives, beyond the stories that you read child.
