ILÍADA liberada
Freed Classics
After the success of La Odisea liberada, with more than 25,000 copies sold, comes Ilíada liberada, a new approach to the most influential epic work in the history of Western literature. An edition that updates the Homeric text and engages in dialogue with the contemporary reader without losing its original power.
The Iliad was conceived to be recited in verse, in dactylic hexameter, a rhythm designed for orality and music. That foundational pulse is at the origin of a tradition that spans centuries and genres, from epic ballads and blind men’s romances to current forms like rap. However, three thousand years of cultural distance make it impossible today to reproduce the original impact of those recitations.
As Jorge Luis Borges pointed out, every translation is actually a new literary work. Based on this idea, this edition is based on the English version by Samuel Butler (1835–1902), which Borges considered one of the most faithful to the Homeric spirit. The text has been rendered into Spanish by Miguel Temprano García, and the illustrations are by Calpurnio, completing the visual work started in La Odisea within this same collection.
This edition is completed with three contemporary texts that expand and reinterpret the epic narrative from a current perspective, focusing on women and war.
First, Troyanas, by Euripides, in the adaptation by Alberto Conejero (2019 National Dramatic Literature Award), places women as the main victims of the destruction of Troy, their homes, and family bonds.
Next, in Otra belleza. Apostilla sobre la guerra, Alessandro Baricco reflects on women’s ability to repair what men destroy and to imagine a different beauty, linked to the desire for peace.
Finally, Marina Garcés, in Guerreras, analyzes the invisible struggles women wage to not be only victims or caregivers and to transform society with the goal of preventing future wars.
