HOMER AND HIS ILIAD

A thorough analysis of “the world’s greatest poem.”

Classicist Fox, author of Augustine and The Classical World and winner of the James Tait Black Award and Duff Cooper Prize, reminds readers that the verses of the Iliad survive in three times as many ancient papyri as those from the Odyssey, with other literary works far more scanty. At 15,000 lines, it’s far longer than other Greek poems, but it remains distinctive for the “concentrated direction of its plot and the compression of its action’s timespan.” In this deeply learned literary companion, Fox makes use of more than 2,000 years of opinion and scholarship, settling many longstanding controversies to his own satisfaction. “It remains overwhelming,” he writes. “It makes us marvel, sometimes smile and often cry. Whenever I read it, it reduces me to tears.” The author maintains that an individual named Homer wrote the Iliad around 750-740 BC, rejecting the theory that it is a “patchwork” assembled by many poets. Fox points out that the poem contains accurate descriptions of landscape features in the relevant regions; together with archaeological findings, this satisfies him (and most scholars) that Troy was a real city, although it remains uncertain that a specific Trojan war took place. The author maintains that Homer is a master of literary pathos and irony, with perhaps Tolstoy being “his only equal.” But there is no doubt that Hellenic culture of the era he describes, as well as the motivations of his characters, requires a nearly page-by-page explication. The result is a rich textual companion for university students majoring in classics or world literature with a rare bonus of being entirely free of turgid academic prose. For average readers, Fox’s book contains far more information than they will want to know, although a Homer enthusiast will learn a great deal.

A lucid, scholarly exploration into an immortal work.