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 intorduction 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 traidtion 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, Edwardfs's scene-by-scene explication of ten major books of the
leads the reader to a greater perception of Homer's mastery and manipulation of convention.