A Referential Commentary and Lexicon to Homer, Iliad VIII

Adrian Kelly shows that familiarity with the oral background of Homeric poetry is vital for a proper appreciation of Homeric narrative. He presents the kind of information a modern reader requires to become as fluent in traditional epic poetry as an original ancient audience. - ;This book aims to provide the reader of Homer with the traditional knowledge and fluency in Homeric poetry which an original ancient audience would have brought to a performance of this type of narrative. To that end, Adrian Kelly presents the text of Iliad VIII next to an apparatus referring to the traditional units being employed, and gives a brief description of their semantic impact. He describes the referential curve of the narrative in a continuous commentary,. tabulates all the traditional units in a separate lexicon of Homeric structure, and examines critical decisions concerning the text in a discussion which employs the referential method as a critical criterion. Two small appendices deal with speech introduction formulae, and with the traditional function of Here and. Athene in early Greek epic poetry. - ;Kelly's work makes an important contribution to the fundamental question: how and what does Homer communicate? - Jenny Strauss Clay, Religious Studies Review;Details that seem at first to be mere fillers are given deeper significance by Kelly ...illuminating. - James Clackson, Times Literary Supplement;A whole thesaurus of motifs and narrative patterns are at [the reader's] disposal, as if he was able to watch not just the end product but also the very process of Homeric composition. In a nutshell, he is virtually plunged into a universe of narrative associations, into the variegated tapestry of Homeric song. . . . Homeric scholars will definitely need to consult it . . . the author has to be praised for the wealth of information he has put at our disposal. - Bryn Mawr Classical Review;The principal strength of this work is its patient amassing of a large body of material