The World Of Odysseus by M.I.Finley (1954, 1979, ISBN 0 1401 3686 X)

This book is an older paperback edition, it is the second edition from Penguin.

This book discusses the world described by the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Conveys a lot of information about the Greek world around the time of Odysseus, around 700 BC.

Purchased at Powell's on 2018-1-10 for 5.95$

 

A Companion to the Iliad by Malcolm M. Willcock.obit (1976, ISBN 0-226-89855-5)

Based on the translation by Richmond Lattimore.

What would be really useful would to have this book embedded in the Lattimore translation as notes.

The commentary goes Book by Book (Iliad is divided into 24 books) and somewhat line by line. If you are interested in understand the Iliad better this book provided a lot of information about ancient Greek culture.

Not sure when I obtained this book, probably within the last ten to fifteen years from Powells.

The Iliad, Homer, Caroline Alexander (2015, ISBN 978-0-06-204627-7)

I like the Iliad, I have read it several times and have collected many English translations (I even have the Greek version, why?, I don't know as I can't read it.)

Purchased Powells Books, 2018-1-10, 27.50$

The Iliad by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles, with Introduction by Bernard Knox. 1990, ISBN 0-14-027536-3. A massive poem (this translation is about 540 pages), considered one of the foundation stones of western culture and literature. Composed 3200 years ago, first written down at about 800 BC. It is an excerpt of the story of the Trojan war, where the Greeks attacked the city of Troy for more than 10 years because Paris had taken Helen from Menelaus. The story told in the poem starts with an argument between Achilles and Agamemnon (brother of Menelaus and primary Greek king.) The poem describes several battles in gruesome detail and ends with the funerals of Patroclus and Hector (son of Trojan king Priam.) Here is a partial list of the characters in the story. The story is mythological, but may be based originally on some similar real events. In this story much of the action is influenced by the Greek gods, for example Zeus, Hera, etc. Two other important characters are Odysseus (main character of Homer's Odyssey) and Ajax. This is the first time I have read this completely. I have collected several translations. This copy was purchased from Borders, probably about ten years ago.