Homer and the Monuments: a review

Extract

This really monumental book reviews the material evidence accumulated—in more than two generations—for the periods within which the Homeric Poems came into being, and applies this evidence to discover the circumstances in which they achieved their actual shape. Outlines of this enquiry were proclaimed by Schliemann's excavations at Hissarlik (his site for Troy), Mycenae, and Tiryns; a remoter background by Sir Arthur Evans' work at Knossos; but detail has come from many hands, and in many fields of research—literary and even linguistic study reacting to archaeological, and propounding fresh problems to excavators. Two world wars have interrupted field-work and retarded publication. Miss Lorimer's own preface bears two dates (1946 and 1949), and she has to admit difficulties in obtaining important books, while some recent work is not noticed. In more than sixty years the leading figures in Homeric studies have changed; but one feels the abiding influence of Helbig and Dörpfeld in archaeology, and of Monro and Leaf in scholarship.