Description: Book I of the Iliad marks the beginning of the first surviving work of Greek literature. This edition with commentary enables readers at all levels to interpret the poetry with heightened pleasure and understanding. It provides help with the morphology, grammar, and syntax of Homeric Greek, situates the poem in its historical and poetic contexts, and elucidates its traditional language, meter, rhetoric, and style, as well as its distinctive transformation of traditional mythology and narrative motifs in accordance with its own interests, values, and poetic purposes. It also addresses the programmatic contrast in Book I between gods and humans; the characterization of both major and minor figures; and the thematic significance in Book I and the poem generally of the representation of social, cultural, religious, and ethical institutions and values. Fully accessible to undergraduates and graduate students, this edition also contains much of value for the scholar.
Brief description: Seth Schein is Emeritus Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of six books, three of which are on Homer: The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer's Iliad (1984), Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays (1996) [edited], and Homeric Epic and its Reception: Interpretive Essays (2016). He has also edited Sophocles' Philoctetes for the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series.
Review Quotes: '... it will benefit all who consult it. Reading it, one feels confident of being in the sure hands of scholar who has thought deeply about the poem over a long career. The edition's rich scholarship, full and careful treatment of myriad issues, thoughtful judgments, and attention to both the small items and the big picture open up the marvels of the Iliad. For decades to come it will prove a valuable companion for anyone reading the poem's opening book.' Michael Halleran, Bryn Mawr Classical Review