Hear the First Book of Homer’s Iliad Read Aloud in the Original Greek

Of course, you can also learn the Greek language spoken today. You can also learn Greek as it was spoken in ancient times and that was taught to modern Western students until very recently in history. But learning the Greek language that Homer spoke is a much different endeavor. The truth is that no human being ever actually spoke like Achilles, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Penelope, or any other character in this story. Iliad and odyssey. Homer’s many literary achievements with these works include the creation and command of a kind of composite poetic Greek that combined features of the regional Ionian and Aeolian dialects with a variety of forms and expressions that were already obsolete by the 8th century BC. If it helps the meter, Homer used it.

Needless to say, even if you are familiar with modern Greek, most of us get everything or most of it wrong when we try to read Homer aloud in the original text. We really have to spend a lot of time in the world of classicists before we hear a more accurate recording than the one above, distributed by a YouTuber called thomas wichero.

On his channel, Wichero specializes in performing venerable literary texts with pronunciation and rhythm as true to the period as possible, often in the original language, and sometimes to the accompaniment of his own music. he finished reading the following Bible, shakespeare, keatsand wildbut so far nothing is as popular as this His performance in the first book of Iliadwith subtitles and English translations of the Homeric texts.

A Greek here in 2026, with no special knowledge of classical languages, might understand a quarter of the individual words that Witchero uses, and maybe even half of them in a given sentence. However, whether or not you can actually follow the story is another matter. Still, Witchero aims not only for linguistic precision but also for emotional resonance, so you can get a surprising amount out of the video even if you don’t understand it at all. If you ignore his glasses, button-down shirt, microphone, and window frame, you feel as if you were sitting around a campfire with him nearly 30 centuries ago. Also note that commenters include true classicists who say his books are the best readings they’ve ever heard. It also includes viewers who, qualified or not, are eager to hear the names of all the powerful Achaean ships he appears in the second volume.

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Based in Seoul, Colin Mbemust write and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages ​​and cultures. he is the author of the newsletter books about cities books as well Home page (I won’t summarize Korea) and korean newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter. @Colinbemust.