This is the second volume in the major six-volume commentary on The Iliad now being prepared under the general editorship of Professor Kirk. Volume I was published in 1985. As before the volume consists of four introductory essays followed by the commentary itself. The Greek text is not included. This project is the first large-scale commentary on The Iliad for nearly 100 years, and takes special account of language, style and thematic structure as well as of the complex social and cultural background to the work.
This is the first volume of a projected six-volume Commentary on Homer's Iliad, under the General Editorship of professor G.S. Kirk. Professor Kirk himself is the editor of the present volume, which covers the first four Books of Iliad. It consists of four introductory chapters, dealing in particular with rhythm and formular techniques, followed by the detailed commentary which aims at helping serious readers by attempting to identify and deal with most of the difficulties which might stand in the way of a sensitive and informed response to the poem. The Catalogues in Book 2 recieve especially full treatment. The book does not include a Greek text - important matters pertaining to the text are discussed in the commentary. It is hoped that the volume as a whole will lead scholars to a better understanding of the epic style as well as of many well-known thematic problems on a larger scale. This Commentary will be an essential reference work for all students of Greek literature. Archaeologists and historians will also find that it contains matters of relevance to them.
This is the first volume of a projected six-volume Commentary on Homer's Iliad, under the General Editorship of professor G.S. Kirk. Professor Kirk himself is the editor of the present volume, which covers the first four Books of Iliad. It consists of four introductory chapters, dealing in particular with rhythm and formular techniques, followed by the detailed commentary which aims at helping serious readers by attempting to identify and deal with most of the difficulties which might stand in the way of a sensitive and informed response to the poem. The Catalogues in Book 2 recieve especially full treatment. The book does not include a Greek text - important matters pertaining to the text are discussed in the commentary. It is hoped that the volume as a whole will lead scholars to a better understanding of the epic style as well as of many well-known thematic problems on a larger scale. This Commentary will be an essential reference work for all students of Greek literature. Archaeologists and historians will also find that it contains matters of relevance to them.
This is the first volume of a projected six-volume Commentary on Homer's Iliad, under the General Editorship of professor G.S. Kirk. Professor Kirk himself is the editor of the present volume, which covers the first four Books of Iliad. It consists of four introductory chapters, dealing in particular with rhythm and formular techniques, followed by the detailed commentary which aims at helping serious readers by attempting to identify and deal with most of the difficulties which might stand in the way of a sensitive and informed response to the poem. The Catalogues in Book 2 recieve especially full treatment. The book does not include a Greek text - important matters pertaining to the text are discussed in the commentary. It is hoped that the volume as a whole will lead scholars to a better understanding of the epic style as well as of many well-known thematic problems on a larger scale. This Commentary will be an essential reference work for all students of Greek literature. Archaeologists and historians will also find that it contains matters of relevance to them.
This is the first study to examine desire in the Iliad in a comprehensive way, and to explain its relationship to the epic's narrative structure and audience reception. Rachel H. Lesser offers a new reading of the poem that shows how the characters' desires, especially those of the mortal hero Achilleus and the divine king Zeus, motivate plot and keep the audience engaged with the epic until and even beyond its end. The author argues that the characters' desires are primarily organized in narrative triangles that feature two parties in conflict over a third. A variety of desires animate these triangles, including sexual passion, longing for a lost loved one, yearning for lamentation, and aggressive desires for vengeance and status, and they are signified with terms such as eros, himeros, pothe, menos, thumos, boule, and eeldor, as well as through the epic's thematic emotions of grief and anger. Desire in the Iliad shows how the mortals' and gods' triangular desires together drive and shape two Iliadic plots, the main plot of Achilleus' withdrawal from the fighting and then return to battle, and the "superplot" of the larger Trojan War story. The author also argues that these plots and their motivating desires arouse the listener's-or reader's-own corresponding desires: narrative desire to know and understand the Iliad's full story, sympathetic desire for characters' welfare, and empathetic passions, longings, and wishes. Our desires invest us in the epic narrative and their resolution brings us satisfaction.
Research into traditional areas of Homeric scholarship (e.g., language, the structure of the text, etc.) has come a long way since the last comprehensive commentaries on the Iliad were carried out, that is, the commentary by Ameis-Hentze in German language in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century as well as the Cambridge commentary by Kirk et. al. in English language in the 1980/90s. Much of this kind of research is now set upon a much surer methodological and theoretical foundation. Developments in the field of Mycenology and in the study of Linear B, oral poetry, and the history of ancient Troy in particular, have made possible a number of new insights and interpretive possibilities in Homer’s epic. Moreover, modern secondary literature of all major languages has been systematically covered. The "Basel Commentary" to the Iliad is a new, up-to-date, standard work that addresses these issues directly and will be of interest to scholars, teachers, and students alike. Central to the commentary on Iliad 24 is the interpretation of one of the most exciting and most moving scenes of the Iliad: how Priam, the king of Troy, makes his way to his mortal enemy Achilles, by whose hand his son Hector had fallen; how the god Hermes leads the old man almost magically into the army camp of the Greeks; how Achilles, at the end of an emotional encounter with Priam, leaves the body of Hector for burial.
At the centre of the commentary on Book 19 of the Iliad is the interpretation of speeches and events at the assembly of the Achaean army. It is here that the argument between Achilles and Agamemnon was settled, thus enabling the Achaeans to take the field in the decisive battle against Hector and the Trojans.
This commentary on the 6th book of the Iliad concentrates on the interpretation of two episodes which have received a great deal of scholarly attention: the encounter between Diomedes and Glaukos, which surprisingly ends with an exchange of weapons and not a duel, and the series of scenes ‘Hector in Troy’, which reveal the hero’s conflicting roles as defender of the city and father of his family.
Since Ameis-Hentze-Cauer (1868-1913) no comprehensive, scholarly commentary of Homer's Iliad has been published in German. In the meantime considerable progress has been made in many traditional areas of Homeric studies (language, realia, structure etc.). In addition, generally acknowledged new fields such as narratology have been systematically studied. Furthermore, the knowledge of the Mycenaean language (Linear B) and oral poetry provide completely new possibilities of textual constitution and analysis. Using the old Ameis-Hentze-Cauer as a starting point, the new commentary reflects the current scholarship on Homer in a comprehensive way. As a new standard work, the "Basel Commentary" of the Iliad has received considerable recognition among scholars worldwide. The fresh concept in terms of content and form serves the needs of different groups of users. The commentary primarily aims at students and academic teachers (at schools and universities), not only of Classics but also of cultural and literary studies as well as of humanities in general.
