<DIV>Anger be now your song, immortal one,<BR>Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous, <BR>that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss<BR>and crowded brave souls into the undergloom, <BR>leaving so many dead men-carrion<BR>for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.<BR>-Lines 1-6<BR><BR>Since it was first published more than twenty-five years ago, Robert Fitzgerald's prizewinning translation of Homer's battle epic has become a classic in its own right: a standard against which all other versions of <I>The Iliad </I>are compared. Fitzgerald's work is accessible, ironic, faithful, written in a swift vernacular blank verse that "makes Homer live as never before" (<I>Library Journal</I>). </DIV>