In assessing the Iliad as a literary work for a mixed, but largely non-specialist, public, I have had occasion to discuss various issues rather differently from the way that writers on Homer usually discuss them. In the process, I have said some new things about the Iliad, which I hope will give the book an interest for the professional Homerist, along with others. At the same time, I have drawn freely on the ideas and researches of many earlier writers: among recent studies, I would single out the books by Mueller, Mason, Vivante and Griffin listed on pp. 100ff. I have also profited from comments on the work in progress by Oliver Taplin, Malcolm Willcock, William Wyatt, Jasper Griffin, Peter Stern and Terence Moore: it is a pleasure to acknowledge these debts.

Note

Simple page references (as pp. 24ff.) refer to pages of this book. Where modern discussions of Homer or the epic are referred to in the text by an author's name (with or without a date), full bibliographical details will be found in the guide to further reading. Roman numerals followed by arabic refer to the Iliad, by book and line: so XV 20 means Iliad, book XV, line 20. References to other ancient works are in general self-explanatory, but fr. stands for ‘fragment’ and ‘West’ after a fragment number refers to the edition of the Greek iambic and elegiac poets by M. L. West (Iambi et Elegi Graeci, Oxford, 1971–2).