Homer on Life and Death

The desire to write this book arose out of my teaching. Listening to many essays on Homer, I carne to feel that the undergraduates who wrote them were being impelled, by the books and articles they read, in the direction of a dryness which did less than justice to the Iliad and Odyssey. Mycenaean land-tenure, Bronze Age archaeology, the intricacies of formulaic phraseology: these special and technical questions seemed almost to squeeze the poems out. The consequence was. that I began to lecture on Homer myself.
I owe many debts to the work of many predecessors and contemporaries. Some personal obligations it is a particular pleasure to record. Mrs. M. Bugge, Mrs. C. Ross, and Mrs. L. Smithson typed the manuscript with accuracy and good humour. My thoughts on Homer have been sharpened by many arguments with my Balliol pupils, who have often made me think again. My colleague Dr. Oliver Lyrie read the proofs with a sharp eye, and not only for typographical errors. Professor Hugh Lloyd-Jones, with characteristic generosity, has given me the great benefit of his acute and learned .criticism, and also of his stimulus and encouragement. To all of them I should like to express my lively thanks.