Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #223630 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

A true work of scholarly investigation
This book is a seminal work in the discussion of the historical world that is depicted by the Homeric epics, providing not only an informative text, but also exstensive footnotes and bibliographies.

I found M. I. Finley's work to be an essential starting point for my research on this subject, and this distinguished scholars experiance opens up many lines of enquiry for the modern student.

Well worth reading.

An excellent and readable intro to Homer
This book gives the reader a good grounding in the various contexts that apply to the Odyssey; the sequel (if I may use that word) to the Iliad. I don't think you need to be a nerdy scholar to benefit from this important work, it really isn't a heavyweight text. I have one serious criticism, not of the author but the publisher; the author's bio on the first recto page is out of date (author died in 1986) and fails to mention that Finley - real name Finkelstein - was sacked from Rutger's University during the McCarthy era because he was deemed a 'commie'. So he fled the 'Land of the Free' to England where he prospered and was eventually knighted. Deliberately omitted, I wonder?

Recommended
Entertaining account of the social milieu of the Homeric poems. After reading the poems themselves, the perfect gentle introduction to the oft-impenetrable world of moden scholarship. Helps restore and explain the "otherness" of the Homeric world, the features that strike us as odd and even funny are well explained.