War Music by Christopher Logue, Homer

Paperback, 240 pgs, Pub Oct 12th 2003 by University Of Chicago Press (first pub 1981), Orig Title: War Music: An Account of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer's Iliad, ISBN13: 9780226491905

Christopher Logue was a poet. Irreverent and utterly original, he was asked to “contribute to a new version” of Homer’s Iliad. Despite protestations that he knew no Greek, he looked over the earliest attempts to translate the work and came up with something…irreverent and utterly original.

Logue offers “an account” of Homer’s Iliad, just as a later poet, Alice Oswald in Memorial, would offer an interpretation…not a translation. Lovers of the Iliad, those who know well the story and joyfully encounter each new translation, will just as eagerly sink into the off-beat nature of this poet’s unique and modern take.

We know Achilles hated Agamemnön, but Achilles’ shouted challenges to the older man in the voice of earlier translators did not have the modernistic sensibility of Logue’s:

‘Mouth! King mouth!’
Then stopped. Then from the middle of the common sand said:
“Heroes, behold your King—
Slow as an arrow fired feathers first
To puff another’s worth,
But watchful as a cockroach of his own.”

Ah, I love that. May I say I can think of another leader who fits the ‘watchful cockroach’ image, who sports a hair mantle not unlike that of the cockroach's carapace. Damn hard to eradicate him, too.

The sport of the gods is evident throughout, despite the bloody gore of a war among equals.

“But they just smile. They are the gods.
They have all the time in the world.
And Lord Apollo orchestrates their dance.
And Leto smiles to see her son, the son of God,
Playing his lyre among them, stepping high,
Hearing his Nine sing how the gods have everlasting joy,
Feasting together, sleeping together,
Kind, color, calendar no bar, time out of mind,
And how we humans suffer at their hands,
Childish believers, fooled by science and art,
Bound for Oblivion—

And Aphrodite, Queen of Love, “her breasts alert and laden with desire…” addresses Helen:

“Do stop this nonsense, Helen, dear…
...Try not to play the thankless bitch:
‘Such a mistake to leave my land, my kiddywink…’
What stuff. Millions would give that lot
For half the looks that I have given you…
...Be proud. You have brought harm. Tremendous boys
Of every age have slaughtered one another
Just for you!
… Bear this in mind:
Without my love, somewhere between the Greek and Trojan lines
A cloud of stones would turn your face to froth.
So, when they lift the curtains, and he looks—you hesitate.
And then you say: Take me, and I shall please you.”
Pause.
What do you say?
‘Take me, and I shall please you.’
“Good. Now in you go.”

Christopher Logue died in 2011, so his account of Books 1-4 and 16-19--this fragment that ends with the death of Petroclus--is what we have left. His similes remain: "Spears like nettles stirred by the wind," “Dust like red mist,” Pain like chalk on slate,” Arrows that drift like bees,” “Tearing its belly like a silk balloon…” And so it goes on.

One is never finished with the Iliad when one has read it. It lingers, and while it does, Christopher Logue’s version gives some joy.

Jeffrey Brown, Arts Correspondent for PBS’ Newshour, reviews War Music in the NYT and gives some background about the work.



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