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.