This is the fifth volume in the major six-volume Commentary on Homer's Iliad now being prepared under the general- editorship of Professor G. S. Kirk. Volume I was published in 1985, Volume II in 1990; both were edited by Professor Kirk himself. Like its predecessors, the present volume (the first to appear from the hand of one of Professor Kirk's four collaborators) consists of four introductory essays (including discussions of similes and other features of narrative style) followed by the Commentary. The Greek text is not included. This project is the first large-scale commentary on The Iliad, for nearly one hundred years, and takes special account of language, style and thematic structure as well as of the complex social and cultural background to the work. The Commentary is an essential reference work for all students of Greek literature, and archaeologists and historians will also find that it contains matters of relevance to them.

Homer: Poet of the "Iliad" is the perfect companion both for readers deepening their appreciation of the poem and its form and for those encountering Homer's work for the first time. Mark Edwards combines the advantages of a general introduction and a detailed commentary to make the insights of recent Homeric scholarship accessible to students and general readers as well as to classicists.

Since interpretation of the epic requires an understanding of the ancient oral tradition and its conventions, Edwards offers a comprehensive analysis of the poetics of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He also discusses essential elements of Homeric society -- its religion, history, and social values -- to clarify the style and substance of the poetry. In the second half of the book, Edwards's scene-by-scene explication of ten major books of the Iliad leads the reader to a greater perception of Homer's mastery and manipulation of convention.

This book concerns the way we read--or rather, imagine we are listening to--ancient Greek and Latin poetry. Through clear and penetrating analysis Mark Edwards shows how an understanding of the effects of word order and meter is vital for appreciating the meaning of classical poetry, composed for listening audiences.

The first of four chapters examines Homer's emphasis of certain words by their positioning; a passage from the "Iliad" is analyzed, and a poem of Tennyson illustrates English parallels. The second considers Homer's techniques of disguising the break in the narrative when changing a scene's location or characters, to maintain his audience's attention. In the third we learn, partly through an English translation matching the rhythm, how Aeschylus chose and adapted meters to arouse listeners' emotions. The final chapter examines how Latin poets, particularly Propertius, infused their language with ambiguities and multiple meanings. An appendix examines the use of classical meters by twentieth-century American and English poets.

Based on the author's Martin Classical Lectures at Oberlin College in 1998, this book will enrich the appreciation of classicists and their students for the immense possibilities of the languages they read, translate, and teach. Since the Greek and Latin quotations are translated into English, it will also be welcomed by non-classicists as an aid to understanding the enormous influence of ancient Greek and Latin poetry on modern Western literature.