Irene J. F. de Jong holds the chair of Ancient Greek at the University of Amsterdam. She has published extensively on Homer, Herodotus and Euripides and is editing a multi-volume history of ancient Greek narrative. Some of her key publications are: Narrators and Focalizers: The Presentation of the Story in the Iliad (1987, reprinted 2004), A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and, with A. Rijksbaron, Sophocles and the Greek Language: Aspects of Diction, Syntax, and Semantics (2006).

'De Jong's emphases are outlined in the preface. She says that she will focus on 'Homer's language …and his narrative style … In my own experience, she accomplishes a great deal more, bringing out meanings and connections that cast book 22 in an entirely fresh light and reveal this book's close connections to the Iliad as a whole. After reading this commentary, I felt I had experienced a thorough review and renewal of my Iliadic self.' Edith Foster, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

• Introduction; Text; Commentary.