Review by Choice Review
This is not a book for the uninitiated, despite the fact that all passages cited in the original Greek are also expertly rendered in the Penguin translation by Martin Hammond. Taplin admits that he is "shamelessly selective," even though in some ways he gives us a kind of introduction, commentary, and interpretation that does not introduce, is quite selective, and constitutes a kind of sequential collation of arguments and observations rather than an integrated perspective or total reading of Homer. In Taplin's arrangement, each section or "sounding" takes a substantial passage as a starting-point and works outwardly from the quotation in an attempt to place it within the structure of the poem as a whole. In so doing, Taplin identifies three very different activities or experiences: hearing poetry, as Homer's own public did; reading poetry as we would read the Iliad; and making use of works of criticism and interpretation. Taplin insists that the Iliad was and is shaped to be received by its audience in sequence, from beginning to end. His principal thesis is that each part of the Iliad is enriched by its placement within the whole and by the way it interacts with all other parts. Taplin sees the poem as being delivered in three huge sessions on three consecutive days. He would break the Iliad down into three parts: Books 1-9, 11-18, and 19-24. (Book 10, the so-called Doloneia, he does not consider authentic.) Convincingly and forcefully the author demonstrates the inseparability of form and content. Graduate level. J. E. Rexine; Colgate University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
