This Guide is structured around three parts of equal length: ‘Homeric Song and Text’, ‘Homeric World’ and ‘Homer in the World’. Each starts with a series of ‘“macropedia” essays’, most between 10–15 pages, followed by shorter ‘“micropedia” articles’, most 1–3 pages in length.

Part 1, ‘Homeric Song and Text’, is unabashedly single-minded in its approach. As Dué writes in this section's introduction: ‘the organizing principle of the essays is that in their earliest incantations the poems that came to be our Iliad and Odyssey were composed orally and in the context of performance’ (p. 3). The seven contributors adhere to the hypothesis of a fluid and evolving text. Elaborations of Milman Parry's and Albert Bates Lord's principles abound, with the one exception that Lord's suggestion of an orally dictated Homer (i.e. of a fixed text dating to Homer) is roundly dismissed in favour of J.M. Foley's and G. Nagy's concept of multiformity (as Dué and Nagy discuss later in the volume in an article on Lord). Like Dué, M. Ebbott in the first essay writes that ‘performance was the medium for the composition, reception, and transmission of the Homeric epics for many centuries’ (p. 14). Discussing the poetics of multiform poetry, L. Muellner focuses on formulae and theme, describing the latter as ‘the next larger container of formulae’ (p. 29). Theme can provide structure for a ‘scroll’ or the whole poem. The theme of the Iliad is the mênis of Achilles (a view that S. Murnaghan shares in her micropedia on ‘The Iliad: an Overview’). Neither relates the theme to the title of the poem, the Iliad, attested since the time of Herodotus, although G. Hedreen in his article on Troy observes that the poem's ‘narrative is predicated on the looming presence of the fortified town’ (p. 208). Muellner also discusses how competing songs avoid telling the same story, ‘a poetics of interaction’ (his italics) (also called Monro's Law). But, because there is no priority of song, ‘it would be arbitrary to choose one poem and say that it is responding to the other’ (p. 34). Discussing a different kind of poetics, R.P. Martin next identifies two song types in the Iliad and Odyssey: the Muses’ expansive universe of epic song and the smaller performative genres sung by mortals, males performing muthoi (‘insults, commands, stories’) and females performing laments. In yet another look at poetics, J. Marks compares songs in the Trojan Cycle to Homer's songs, noting that most adhere to Monro's Law, while Hesiod's two major songs do not. Marks also tackles a fundamental problem for those who argue that the Iliad and Odyssey ‘took shape within … [a] well-established tradition’ (p. 49). That is, why did Aristotle see them as different from all other epea in shape and design? For Marks, Aristotle's preference for a ‘Panhellenic poetics [stemmed from] something like a universal aesthetic’ (p. 60), but this sidesteps the issue.

In the next essay E. Cook defines myth in Homer as ‘the oral performance of a traditional tale’ (p. 62). He observes that Near Eastern influence upon Homeric myth is widespread but Panhellenised, while Indo-European influence is less evident and diffused (as exampled by the I-E hero-dragon myth reconfigured as Achilles battling the Skamandros River). In the next essay E.J. Bakker discusses dialectical and diachronic features of Homeric Kunstsprache both in Parryian terms and in the context of ordinary, spoken language, for the latter of which he finds examples in the syntax of the Iliad's proem. Befitting a section so heavily indebted to Nagy's work and the fertile fields of the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C., under his direction, Nagy writes the concluding essay on a diachronic Homer and the need for a multi-text edition of Homer that does not privilege one variant over another.

The idea of an evolving Homeric text is prevalent today, especially in the United States and among young scholars, but the Guide does its readers a disservice not to discuss reasons for proposing a fixed text, whether orally dictated or aided by writing, or the possibility of large sections of an oral poem being committed to memory, as ethnographers have identified in other oral traditions. Similarly, there is insufficient attention to adaptations of passages from the Odyssey (Stesichorus) and from Hesiod's Works and Days (Alcaeus) as early as 600 bc that are very close to our present texts. Again, both here and in L. Kim's essay later, too little is made of the fact that by 550 bc Greek poets regularly singled out ‘Homer’ (whose name at times was attributed to more than the Iliad and Odyssey) and Hesiod as the two literary and cultural giants of the past, rarely ever naming other singers. In the insistence in these pages upon a fluid text, many questions about poetics, related to style and design, go unaddressed. This reviewer misses discussions of characterisation, the poetics of repeated similes, the monumentality of the poems and their compositional tightness that Aristotle so admired. Ultimately, what seems lacking is a discussion of how the Iliad and Odyssey are both like and unlike the tradition from which they emerge.

Forty articles (by 23 scholars) complement these essays. Topics range from ‘Achilles’ (Muellner) to ‘Type Scenes’ (A.C. Loney), with many related to oral poetry: ‘Catalogues’ (A. Karanika), ‘Epithets’ (Ebbott), ‘Formula’ (J.P. Christensen), ‘Immanence’ (traditional referentiality) (D. Turkeltaub), ‘Kleos’ (L.F. Garcia Jr.), ‘Lament’ (D. Beck), ‘Meter’ (G.D. Bird), ‘Narrative’ (J.L. Ready), ‘Ring Composition’ (Bird), ‘Similes’ (discussed as connecting poet and audience) (Karanika), ‘Speech’ (Beck), while other articles are on ‘Early Editions’ (F. Schironi), ‘Epic Cycle’ (Christensen), ‘Homer and the Alphabet’ (J.M. González), ‘Homeric Scholia’ (Schironi), ‘Panhellenism’ (Christensen), ‘Rhapsodes’ (González). In addition to the article on Achilles, there is one on Odysseus (L. Slatkin), but nothing on Hektor or Patroklos, Penelope or the suitors.

Part 2, ‘Homeric World’, is less ideological and invites diverse perspectives. Introduced by Lupack, this section includes five essays and 37 articles (by 27 authors). J.P. Crielaard's first essay discusses the imagined communities in Homer, the background against which the competitive and individualistic ambitions of Homer's heroes are framed. He argues that these fictive communities align most closely with Early Archaic realities. Articles on ‘Women in Homer’ (D. Lyons), ‘Class Relations’ (H. van Wees), ‘Assemblies and Councils’ (D.F. Elmer), ‘Homeric Economy’ (E.M. Harris), ‘Household Organization’ (R. Westgate), ‘Feasting and Drinking’ (M. Węcowski), ‘Athletic Competition’ (C. Stocking), ‘Basileus and Anax in Homer and Mycenaean Greek Texts’ and on ‘Warfare’ (both by T.G. Palaima) enrich and expand Crielaard's strong essay.

J. Strauss Clay also writes well on the essential question of ‘Homeric Religion’. Focusing on the multiple worlds within the poems, rather than the archaeological record, she looks first at the array of ritual activities depicted in the epics, before discussing Homeric teleology, a cohesive construct, she argues, that both resembled and diverged from practised religion. Also discussed: Zeus’ unquestioned power on Olympus, his relation to fate and justice, the remarkable intimacy between gods and men, especially in the Iliad, as well as the gods’ jealousies and human-like vulnerabilities, although not discussed is the will of Zeus in relation to the Iliad. Numerous articles fill out the essay, including the ‘Afterlife in Homer’ (A.A. Hooper), ‘Burial Practices’ (B. Eder), ‘Divine Epiphany’ (G. Petridou), ‘Offerings’ and ‘Supplication’ (both by F.S. Naiden), ‘Personification’ (E.J. Stafford), ‘Prayers and Vows’ (S.J. Pulleyn) and ‘Religious Festivals in Homer’ (G.A. Gazis).

On ‘Homer and History’, J. Whitley writes (1) that both the Trojan War and the nostoi are imagined events, (2) that objects like Nestor's Cup and Achilles’ Shield are unattested in the archaeological record and that dating Homer through material culture yields an inconsistent picture, (3) that there never was a Homeric society that belonged to one particular period, and (4) that for Homer's heroes the past was joined to the present through exchanged gifts but ‘for Homer's audience his heroes were part of a “foreign country” where things were done very differently’ (p. 266). Related articles include ‘Boars’ Tusk Helmets’ (B.E. Burns), ‘Shield of Achilles’ (E.A. Stockdale) and ‘Warrior Graves’ (M. Lloyd).

D. Nakassis takes a refreshingly contemporary approach to ‘Homeric Geography’, writing that geography and topography in Homer are largely conceptual and not ‘fossils, by means of which the historical context of the epics can be reconstructed, but active elements that construct meaning in the poem’ (p. 268). Related articles include ‘Catalogue of Ships: Archaeology’ (B. Jasnow), ‘Catalogue of Ships: Literary Aspects’ (C. Evans), ‘Mycenae’ and ‘Pylos’ (both by S. Nikoloudis) and ‘Hittite Literary Evidence’ (E. Cline).

In the fifth essay C.M. Antonaccio writes how materiality ‘includes the sensory experience of objects [and] a dimension of time’ (p. 279). Some objects in Homer are exotic, others are fantastical but plausible; both energise the audience's imagination. For Homer's audiences the lineage of these objects, whether performed by characters in the poem or by the singer, mystify the past and evoke its value. Of particular relevance is the article on ‘Lefkandi’ (J.M.A. Murphy).

Part 3, ‘Homer in the World’, is devoted to the rich and complex study of the reception of Homer from c. 650 bc to its place in world literature in the twenty-first century. Introduced by Lamberton, it consists of eight essays (with the many-headed story of reception since 1900 divided into eight subcategories) and fifteen articles (by twelve authors). Kim traces the many changes and the evolution of Homer's reception in antiquity, especially as a sage and cultural icon, although the absence of Hesiod in this story is a shortcoming. M. Desmond covers reception in the Latin West from Augustine to Petrarch, when for large stretches of time Greek was lost, while M. Mavroudi has two extensive essays on reception in Greece and the Near East, the first during the Christian Byzantine Period (replete with important comments about allegorical readings and Arabic reception) and the second on reception in the time of the Muslim Ottoman Empire up to the present (replete with discussion of translations of Homer into Armenian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Turkish and Arabic, inspired by nation building and moves towards modernisation). J. Wolfe tells the fascinating story of Homeric editions, translations and artistic adaptations from 1488 (Chalcondyles’ editio princeps) to 1649 (Homer in various art forms), followed by K.L. Haugen's essay on ‘Homer in Early Modern Europe’, which bookends with extended analyses of F.A. Wolf and J.J. Winckelmann. T.E. Jenkins shares his essay on Homer from 1900 with short entries on ‘Homer and War’ (P. Meineck), ‘Gendered Reception’ (L. Doherty), ‘Homer in Social Thought’ (Jenkins), ‘Homer in Greece’ (G. Syrimis), ‘Postcolonial Perceptions of Homeric Epic’ (E. Greenwood), ‘Homer and Homerica on Screen’ (M.M. Winkler), Homer in comics, TV and new media (Jenkins) and Homer in scholarship (A. Beecroft). H.A. Shapiro closes out the essays with ‘Homer: Image and Cult’. Articles in this section include: ‘Allegory’ (Lamberton), ‘Aristotle and Homer’ (Lamberton), ‘Chaucer and Homer’ (D. Lawton), ‘Dante and Homer’ (B.E. Stevens), ‘The Homeric Question’ (Dué and Marks), ‘Jean de Sponde and Homer’ (C. Deloince-Louette), ‘Vergil and Homer’ (T. Keeline), with the last fittingly on ‘Simone Weil and the Iliad’ (A. Hall).

The index is unfortunately very spotty, especially for subjects in Parts 2 and 3; an index locorum would have been useful. Other than the narrow focus of Part 1, the editors are to be commended for the great range and tripartite structure of this guide and for its mixture of essays and articles, covering many of the diverse pathways we take when reading and enjoying Homer. This is a valuable resource.