The Ancient Scholia to Homer's Iliad

With roots in the Homeric scholarship produced in the Library of Alexandria in the third and second centuries BCE, the ancient scholia to the Iliad constitute the richest and most extensive collection of ancient criticism on the most widely read poem in Greco-Roman antiquity. Excerpted from lost works of ancient scholarship and transmitted as marginal and interlinear comments in medieval manuscripts of the Iliad, these scholia contain a remarkable wealth of insights into the constitution of the Homeric text, the readings and editorial principles of ancient grammarians, the literary interpretations of ancient critics, and the lessons that ancient readers took from Homer. This volume provides the first English translation of the ancient scholia to Iliad books 1–2. With a clear and accessible introduction, extensive explanatory notes, and a glossary of ancient scholars, this book serves as the ideal guide to this complex and fascinating tradition.

• Makes the ancient scholia to Iliad Books 1–2 accessible to readers without knowledge of ancient Greek and without specialized knowledge of ancient Greek scholarship
• Includes a clear and comprehensive introduction that explicates the sources, classes, and transmission of the Iliad's ancient scholia in a way accessible for non-specialists
• Contains substantial ancillary materials, including a glossary of ancient scholars named in the text and numerous explanatory footnotes aimed at clarifying and contextualizing the text