H. starts with a brief summary of Homer's birthplaces and his comparison to gods or to the Ocean. In Chapter 1 he relates his intention to consider Homer's influence across the Greek world. One of the spheres of such influence was education: many generations of schoolchildren learned Greek through appreciating Homer's language, metre and characters; the interesting (if not unusual) evidence presented by H. is a series of epigrams that attest to Homer's impact on people's everyday lives in diverse and surprisingly unexpected ways, which include ‘the vivid description of the pleasures of defecation in a public latrine’ (p. 10). Knowledge about Homer could have been communicated through many channels of public life including public recitations, classes at schools and shows by performers acting out Homeric scenes. Homeric centos, sympotic games and inscribed epitaphs compose a complex mosaic of Homeric echoes that were central to the construction of Hellenic identity. H. correctly remarks that Homer, through the heritage of the heroic poetry, created a sense of ‘Greekness’ that underlined for the generations to come what they shared with each other: blood, language, religion and way of life.
In Chapter 2 H. explores Homer's relation to the divine. This relationship has been interpreted by ancient sources in an allegorical way, and H. explores with erudition different trends of moral, physical and psychological allegorisation especially in the works of Plato, Porphyry, Plutarch and in the Homeric scholia. This method of defending the Homeric gods was an answer to severe criticism against Homeric theology that started with Xenophanes (sixth century bc) and continued through Roman and Byzantine times. Problems of free will and divine intervention were also part of the Homeric debate; H. examines these issues through some key Homeric scenes such as Zeus's nod to grant Thetis’ request (Book 1) and Aphrodite's intervention in Helen's encounter with Paris (Book 3), and in juxtaposition to ancient authors such as Longinus, who suggests that Homer allegorises himself, and Dio Chrysostom, who underlines Pheidias’ difficulties in depicting gods. The logical conclusion that H. reaches through the examination of a large range of authors is that Homer has been both praised and dismissed for the human representation of his gods. Most of his ancient readers recognised that a wholistic interpretation of the Homeric gods that covers all inconsistencies does not exist.
Chapter 3 examines the fascination and criticism invited by Odysseus’ claim in Book 9 that ‘eating, drinking and listening to a bard were the highest good’. The symposium was the most influential institution in Greek literature directly linked to social life, and it constituted the setting for a rich tradition of works. H. thoroughly examines the symposium as a literary construction especially its potential to inspire later criticism about Homer's scenes of degeneration and hubris. Platonic philosophical debate criticised such discussion of poetry in cultured symposia, and the ideal conduct in them became a subject of debate for Xenophon, Plutarch and Maximus of Tyre. H. revisits the tradition of the question frequently posed by sympotic song-culture about what the finest thing is. He refers to Theognis, Plutarch and Lucian in relation to the scene in which Odysseus is about to narrate his story after Alcinous’ request. In addition, he analyses the significance of strife in the feasting of the suitors in the Odyssey and how later authors have equally built on the Homeric tradition by describing the dining companion who gives you a headache (Plutarch) or different types of symposiasts (Dio). Odysseus’ account of the Odyssey also raised narratological issues such as the question of the narrative ordering, which deals with the relationship between the sequence in which events happened and that in which they are narrated. These issues are still relevant to modern narratology.
In Chapter 4 H. draws on how scholars argued about inconsistencies in the Homeric epics and the solutions they offered. These vary from allegorisations of Apollo's plague against the Greeks to the explanation by Heraclitus of Homer's limitation of the narrative to the tenth year of war to manipulation of past events in the Iliad to serve rhetorical purposes (especially in relation to Odysseus’ recollection of events). Aristotle produced a book on Homeric Problems, and his remarks were of interest to subsequent reception by Cicero, Ovid, Porphyry and even Eustathius. H. correctly notes that the engagement with the Homeric text was ‘an area of cultural life where much more was at stake in what we might think of as “scholarship” than is often imagined’ (p. 147). The section on Aristarchean scholarship offers a comprehensive account of the advances in the understanding of Homer's techniques by the greatest Homeric scholar of the Hellenistic period. His interpretations often cause unease or surprise to modern scholars, but H. reminds us that for Aristarchus Homer was in control of every detail of the poems and any inconsistencies could be ‘treated’ through athetisis or reasoning by Homeric analogy. H. correctly underlines that, although modern scholars give less importance to rhetorical and ethical ‘appropriateness’ of specific Homeric scenes, this does not suggest that ancient scholarship is by definition silly or difficult to understand especially because of the social background of these ancient scholars. In his section about rewriting Homer, although H. acknowledges the importance of paraphrases for the education of schoolchildren, he shows limited interest in them with a reference to an outdated example (p. 167 n. 75). He prefers to focus more on the different rhetorical techniques (compression, extension, invention, affirmation, disproval, appeal to probability) that are instructive about the reading and reception of poetical texts. The creative supplementation of Homer is explored through the examples of Horace's Satires and the Plutarchean dialogue between Odysseus, Circe and Gryllus, a man who is turned into a pig. Plutarch deconstructs the whole heroic tradition by using philosophical arguments and Homeric criticism in order to affirm in an amusing way that the pursuit of heroic glory is an empty endeavour.
In Chapter 5 H. explains how the Sirens’ deceitful offer to Odysseus of pleasure and knowledge in Odyssey Book 12 became the most influential mode in antiquity to discuss the nature and effects of literature. The episode of the Sirens created a mosaic of interpretative and allegorical tradition about the power of song and the life of knowledge and pleasure that Odysseus experiences in his travels. The interpretation of the passage of the Sirens by Plato in his Phaedrus offers the reader some exciting insights and parallels (the one between Socrates and the philosophical Odysseus being important as it influenced later receptions). For Christians the Sirens represented temptation, which (like Plato argued before them) could lead to corrupting pleasure that should be kept away from education. Leaving the songs of the Sirens and moving on to the song of Achilles, H. concludes that Achilles plays the lyre for his own pleasure and thus rejects the communal values of the heroic world he is part of. The scholiastic tradition offers rich interpretation of the scene including the idea of ‘anger management’ and reaffirms H.’s belief that both Achilles’ song and Odysseus’ Sirens are scenes that ‘offer a very long tradition of ancient ideas … about the power of music and song’.
The chapters in this stimulating guide to ancient reception range widely. The bibliography, notes, abbreviations and indexes all contribute to a more detailed understanding by both experts and a wider audience. It is strange that, even if Plutarch and Dio Chrysostom are not the most significant figures in the ancient reception of Homer, they are given detailed attention. The real strength of the book is that it affirms and illuminates the undoubtable influence that Homer's world had on the ancient mind and psyche and it also opens the road for further discussion on ancient responses and appropriations of Homeric poetry.
