The Cambridge Companion to Homer (Cambridge Companions to Literature) by Robert Fowler (PDF)

Description

The Cambridge Companion to Homer is a guide to the essential aspects of Homeric criticism and scholarship, including the reception of the poems in ancient and modern times. Written by an international team of scholars, it is intended to be the first port of call for students at all levels, with introductions to important subjects and suggestions for further exploration. Alongside traditional topics like the Homeric Question, the divine apparatus of the poems, the formulae, the characters and the archaeological background, there are detailed discussions of similes, speeches, the poet as story-teller and the genre of epic both within Greece and worldwide. The reception chapters include assessments of ancient Greek and Roman readings as well as selected modern interpretations from the eighteenth century to the present day. Chapters on Homer in English translation and ‘Homer’ in the history of ideas round out the collection.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Back in the 1960s, Wace and Stubbings published their “Companion to Homer”, an impressive collection of essays on a range of topics related to the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey. It remains one of the best books on Homer, though parts of it are now outdated, and though parts relating to literary interpretation feel a bit alien to 21st-century tastes. (It is not currently available from Amazon, sadly.)A follow-up, the “New Companion to Homer”, was published in 1996, edited by Ian Morris and Barry Powell. Morris is a highly-respected scholar. Even so, the “New Companion” had its ups and downs. It was certainly more up-to-date than Wace and Stubbings; but it left a sense of faint disappointment at what might have been.Since then there have been a few more books designed as general introductions to Homer. There is

⭐; a variety of less reputable ones; and then there is this book.Now, Latacz is an easier read than this book. He is more approachable. His book also really needs to be read as a whole; that may be either a virtue or a shortcoming depending on how you look at it. It is a good book.This book, however, is the one everyone had been hoping that the “New Companion” would be. We have here a truly excellent, well-rounded book. It is still not up to the very, very high standard set by Wace and Stubbings; but it is more up-to-date, it is scholarly, it is accurate, it is informative, it is concise. Each chapter is an article in its own right and can (should) be read separately. The book is also very reasonably priced.If you are in doubt as to which book to buy as an introduction to Homer, there is no contest: buy the “Cambridge Companion”. Of the competitors, Latacz is the only one that even comes close.

⭐I had high expectations for this book – Cambridge University and all – but it was disappointing. While there are a few informative essays, most are just pretentious academic nonsense. There were several essays where I stopped reading three or four pages in. Even the bibliography – or “Works cited” is worthless.

⭐The Cambridge Companion to Homer is an excellent introduction to Homeric studies, bringing the best academic writers together in one volume, and providing readers with all the background information about Homer and his age and all the introductory information about the poems themselves and their poetics that they will need. A real triumph. Highly recommended.

⭐okay

⭐For the time being.

⭐Great help with Homer studies:)

⭐This is an extremely useful and comprehensive set of articles. There’s something for everyone — scholarship at its most user-friendly. Highly recommended!

⭐This is a work of scholarship by an interesting number of academic specialists, some of whom I had not come across before. That feature alone made it compelling reading. It was a valuable contribution to this area, where much will never be either known or fully appreciated. I am delighted to have purchased it.

⭐A useful and interesting collection of essays introducing a number of the many topics still challenging readers of Homer, in whatever language they use. A good buy.

⭐I should say from the outset that this review reflects not the content of this volume which is excellent and provides a rounded selection of essays for anyone getting to grips with the Homeric texts. Instead my review reflects the quality of the reproduction from Amazon. I have been in touch with Cambridge University Press and they let me know that certain volumes that are available as print on demand (such as this one) are also licensed to be printed by other organisations such as Amazon.I have compared this copy with one from the same series printed by Cambridge University Press themselves and have noted the differences to be as follows:Identifying feature is on the last page where a barcode and “printed by amazon” is printed.The cover curls easily unless weighted down and is lighter weight.The plastic coating on the cover is poor quality and shows signs of bubbling in the folds where it meets the spine.The pages are a brilliant white that is harder to read from.The ink density of the typeface is lower and therefore harder to read.The binding is single page which is more likely to fall apart over time.

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