The Prolegomena provide an introduction to the Basler Iliad commentary. The volume includes essays on the history of Iliad commentaries and the text, formulaic language and the oral tradition, grammar, meter, characters, plot and chronological structure, narrative technique, and developments in Homeric criticism, as well as an Index of Mycenaean words with brief explanations.

No complete, scholarly commentary of Homer's "Iliad" has been published in German since Ameis-Hentze-Cauer (1868-1913). In the meantime, considerable progress has been made in many traditional branches of the study of Homer (language, facts, structure etc.). In addition, generally acknowledged fields such as narrative studies have received a systematic basis, while Mycenaeology (Linear B) and oral-poetry studies provide completely new possibilities for analysing texts. Using the old Ameis-Hentze-Cauer as a basis, the new commentary will take these developments into account and seek to reflect the current level of Homer studies as comprehensively as possible. Primary target groups include students and academics of classical studies as well as the humanities in general.

Homer s Iliad has influenced European literature and art to this day. In the last 30 years, researchers have made significant progress in illuminating this epic. In this study, a leading Homer scholar engages in dialogue with the international research community to reflect on today s most significant questions, among them the Iliad s origins, language and style, structure, historical context, and after-effects."

Dem eigentlichen Homerkommentar, der im jeweils zweiten Faszikel eines Bandes geboten wird, geht im jeweils ersten Faszikel der griechische Text (von M . L. West) und die Aoebersetzung von J. Latacz voraus. In der dritten Auflage wurden einzelne Vorbemerkungen zu diesem Faszikel aktualisiert.

The Basle complete commentary on Homer's Iliad is widely used internationally, both in research and teaching. The second, revised edition of the commentary on Book 1 (vol. 1, 2002) having been out of print for some months, a third revised edition is now available.

In this book Joachim Latacz turns the spotlight of modern research on the much-debated question of whether the wealthy city of Troy described by Homer in the Iliad was a poetic fiction or a memory of historical reality.
Earlier excavations at the hill of Hisarlik, in Turkey, on the Dardanelles, brought no answer, but in 1988 a new archaeological enterprise, under the direction of Manfred Korfmann, led to a radical shift in understanding. Latacz, one of Korfmann's closest collaborators, traces the course of these excavations, and the renewed investigation of the imperial Hittite archives they have inspired. As he demonstrates, it is now clear that the background against which the plot of the Iliad is acted out is the historical reality of the thirteenth century BC. The Troy story as a whole must have arisen in this period, and we can detect traces of it in Homer's great poem.