The Cambridge Companion to Homer

Robert Fowler is Henry Overton Wills Professor of Greek, University of Bristol. He is the author of The Nature of the Early Greek Lyric (1987). He has also edited Early Greek Mythology, Volume 1 (2001).

'The 22 contributors to this important book represent a healthy diversity of views but share fundamental assumptions. All engage closely with the text of Homer, and take the epics seriously as literature. … one of the most distinguished of the Cambridge Companions series, and will be essential reading for every student.' The Anglo-Hellenic Review

• Introduction Robert Fowler; Part I. The Poems and their Narrator: 1. The Iliad: an unpredictable classic Donald Lateiner; 2. The Odyssey and its explorations Michael Silk; 3. The storyteller and his audience Ruth Scodel; Part II. The Characters: 4. The gods in the Homeric epics Emily Kearns; 5. Manhood and heroism Michael Clarke; 6. Gender and Homeric epic Nancy Felson and Laura Slatkin; Part III. The Poet's Craft: 7. Formulas, metre and type-scenes Matthew Clarke; 8. Similes and other likenesses Richard Buxton; 9. The speeches Jasper Griffin; Part IV. Text and Context: 10. Epic as genre John Miles Foley; 11. The epic tradition in Greece Ken Dowden; 12. Homer's society Robin Osborne; 13. The Homeric question Robert Fowler; Part V. Homeric Receptions: 14. Homer and Greek literature Richard Hunter; 15. Roman Homer Joseph Farrell; 16. Homer and English epic Penelope Wilson; 17. Homer and the Romantics Timothy Webb; 18. Homer and Ulysses Vanda Zajko; 19. Homer: the history of an idea James Porter; 20. 'Shards and suckers': contemporary receptions of Homer Lorna Hardwick; 21. Homer in English translation George Steiner.