Among all creatures that breathe on earth and crawl on it there is not anywhere a thing more dismal than man is.
Homer
- Author
- Homer
- Genre
- epic poem
Facts: Wikidata (CC0), as of 2026-07-09
Every Iliad quote in English is really a translator's line: 'there is not anywhere a thing more dismal than man' is Richmond Lattimore's rendering, and the same passage reads entirely differently in Pope's couplets or Fagles's free verse. Quoting Homer is always quoting a partnership -- the poem is nearly three thousand years old, but the sentences are modern.
And you, old sir, we are told you prospered once.
Homer
I have gone through what no other mortal on earth has gone through; I put my lips to the hands of the man who has killed my children.
Homer
Then looking at him darkly resourceful Odysseus spoke to him: "What is this word that broke through the fence of your teeth, Atreides?"
Homer
The will of Zeus was accomplished.
Homer
Victory passes back and forth between men.
Homer