For over 50 years now the series ‘Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics’ – also known as ‘green and yellow’ due to the colours of its cover – has been providing the Classics community with high-standard commentaries on ancient literary works or, as frequently, sections of them. Any student of Greek and Latin feels a kind of relief when the literary source they must work on is contemplated in the series. Certain to find what they need for reading difficult passages and an introduction dealing with main questions concerning the ancient text, students and researchers have been resorting with confidence to the series, which provides reliable, high-quality material written by renowned classicists and specialists. The issue on Iliad Book 3 is no different, and B., who has already contributed to the series (Odyssey Books XIII and XIV [2013]), presents the scholar working on Homer at any level with an obliging volume.

The introduction gives a fair overview of Iliad 3, with its main characters, its historical and cultural background, along with helpful sections on Homeric metre and language as well as on the history of the transmission of the text. The Greek text for Book 3 is divided into sections with descriptive titles, and the ensuing commentary extends from questions concerning broad issues, like the origin of book division of Homer's works, to detailed grammatical explanations, such as the phonetics of Indo-European roots.

In an overall perspective, the Homeric poem is treated as resulting from an oral tradition (or oral traditions) and as early as in the introduction's first subsection (1.1 ‘Structure of Iliad 3’), it is shown how the major episodes follow a ring composition structure (duel–Helen–oath–duel–Helen). In 1.2 ‘Narrative Style’ the key feature is the economy with which descriptions are made, even regarding the first significant appearances of main characters such as Paris, Menelaus, Hector, Helen and Priam. The brief descriptions of those characters, along with the speeches, are more telling of their behaviour and feelings than of their physical appearance and are seen as carrying symbolic weight. Even the function of the descriptions in the Teichoscopia (161–244) is to frame the characters’ qualities rather than to present physical traits. Section 1.3 deals with narrative ‘oddities’ in Book 3, as episodes like the Teichoscopia would be more suitable to the beginning of the war instead of its last year. The next subsection (1.4 ‘Stories of Past and Present’) is further divided into segments concerning Helen, Hector and Paris, and it provides a helpful background to the reading of the commentary when it comes to the actions and reactions of those characters.

While Section 1 deals with matters internal to Book 3, Section 2 focuses on the historical background, situating Troy within a broader Near Eastern context, especially its relation to the Hittites during the Bronze Age. To treat the subject in a fair but brief manner, the section is divided into two major subsections, one regarding archaeology and the other concerning written evidence. The first one pays special attention to archaeological evidence of violent destructions of cities that could possibly frame the story behind the Iliad. The second subsection is longer and further subdivided. It presents indications of contact between Troy and the Hittites, with the ‘Mycenaean’ Greeks as the Ahhiyawa in the Hittite texts; also, the subsection explores a possible tradition of Near Eastern poetry featuring the destruction of cities and focuses on the poetic tradition of the Trojan War as a result of the interweaving of several peoples’ literary traditions.

The third major section of the introduction discusses matters that are at the same time internal and external to Book 3, handling the cultural background through an analysis of some literary motifs regarding Helen and their relation to ancient Indian literature, such as her brothers the Dioscuri and their equivalents Ashvins, on the one hand, and the narratives of abductions like the one concerning Draupadī in the Indian epic Mahābhārata, on the other. The second subdivision of this section shows a possible Anatolian influence on the oath-swearing as a traditional story-pattern, made clear by the decipherment of the Akkadian and Hittite languages.

Sections 4–6 are straightforward and deal with basic issues of Homeric language and text, such as 4.1 ‘The Metrical Scheme’, 4.2 ‘Rules of Quantity (“Prosody”)’ and a section on ‘Date’ (4.3), where some formulas are seen as suggestive of the time the hexameter may have been created. In Section 5 students can find a helpful account of the particularities of the Homeric language, which is handy and as thorough as a commentary allows it to be. Finally, the last section gives a brief account of the history of the Homeric text.

The commentary provides material for an effective reading of Book 3. Phonetic adaptations to the metre are pointed out, Indo-European roots are noted when relevant, and difficult words are explained. B. mobilises a huge amount of information to give readers what they need to make the Homeric text understandable: from Indo-European roots, to clear-cut explanations for syntactical difficulties and a comprehensive overview of episodes. There are, however, several incorrect references to some of the introduction's subsections, mainly to the contents of Section 5, ‘Homeric language’, due to its further subdivisions.

The relations between the Homeric poems and the broad Near Eastern tradition of poetry continue to be explored even in the commentary section, showing how those relations enlighten the understanding of the Homeric text. B. points out the resources that could have been worked and reworked by oral tradition culminating in the Homeric texts; bringing these issues to the attention of undergraduates is most welcome. Nevertheless, the volume does not overburden readers, and a useful glossary of linguistic terms can be found at the end of the commentary.

Bibliographical material in languages other than English is kept to a minimum, which is justifiable in a work aimed at undergraduates as well as at graduates, although references to foreign works are provided when they are essential.

Iliad 3 makes us long for other commentaries to come. It is of great help for encouraging students to face longer texts in ancient Greek and gives a good sense of accomplishment in reading Homer. As a fundamental tool for studying the poem and for grasping the intricacies of the Homeric fabric, the book shows to early readers that this fabric is further interwoven, and its Near Eastern threads, once they have been exposed, cannot be unseen or even overlooked.