Although the influence of Homer on Western literature has long commanded
critical attention, little has been written on how various generations
of readers have found menaing in his texts. These seven essays explore
the ways in which the Illiad and the Odyssey have been read from the
time of Homer through the Renaissance. By asking what questions early
readers expected the texts to answer and looking at how these
expectations changed over time, the authors clarify the position of the
Illiad and the Odyssey in the intellectual world of antiqueity while
offering historical insight into the nature of reading.
The collection surveys the entire field of preserved ancient
interpretations of Homer, beginning with the fictional audiences
portrayed within the poems themselves, proceedings to readings by
Aristotle, the Stoics, and Aristarchus and Crates, and culminating in
the spritiualized allegorical reading current among Platonists of the
fifth and sixth centuries C.E. The influence of these ancient
interpretations is then examined in Byzantium and in the Latin West
during the Renaissance. Contributors to this volume are Robert Browning,
Anthony Grafton, Robert Lamberton, A.A. Long, James Porter, Nicholas
Richardson, and Charles Segal.
Robert Lamberton is Assistant Professor of Classics and John J. Keaney
is Professor of Classics, both at Princeton University.
Originally published in 1977.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from
the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions
preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting
them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the
Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich
scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by
Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
