The author here reassesses the concept of 'masculinity', and argues that it cannot be seen as an absolute standard, but only as the product of perpetual conflict between competing and unstable models.

The argument is sustained by a close reading of the problematic conflict between gendered values in eighteenth-century classical learning. Pope's Homer ensured the continuation of the tradition of using the Iliad and Odyssey to teach privileged boys how to become more 'manly'. This book examines this pedagogy in its socio-literary context, and concludes that...

The role of poetic allusion in classical Greek poetry, to Homer especially, has often largely been neglected or even almost totally ignored. This book, first published in 1990, clarifies the place of Homer in Greek education, as well as adding to the interpretation of many important tragedies.

Focussing on the dramatic masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and how these writers imitated and alluded to other poetry, the author reveals the immense dependence on Homer which can be seen throughout the corpus of Attic tragedy. It is argued that the practice of the art of...

Here is presented a succinct and insightful account of the reception of the Iliad and Odyssey from antiquity to the mid-twentieth century. The overall result is less a systematic history than a series of independent studies differing in scale and focus, the chapter on Gladstone being the most comprehensive and detailed. First published in 1958.

The author gives greatest attention to those who made active use of Homer rather than passive, even if admiring, readers: Virgil because he wrote the Aeneid, Gladstone because he brought him to prominence in Oxford...

Published in 1970, this important work interprets the poem with a focus on the idiosyncrasies of its originally oral composition.

In part I, the main themes of the Odyssey such as 'guest-friendship' and 'testing' are investigated. The incorporation of these and other themes, such as 'omens' and the 'homecomings of the Achaeans', into the dramatic construction of the whole epic is also examined. In Part II, the main characters of the Odyssey are described: the Suitors, Telemachus, Odysseus and Penelope. So too are Theoclymenus and Laertes, whom traditional criticism...

This book, first published in 1958, aims to describe Greek art and poetry within this ambiguous period of ancient history (often referred to as the Greek 'Dark Ages'), and to explore the possibilities of learning about Mycenaean civilisation from its own documents and not only from archaeology.

Specifically, Webster utilises Michael Ventris' decipherment of Linear B in 1952 - which proved that Greek was spoken in the Mycenaean world - to determine the general contours of aesthetic development from Mycenae to the time of the written composition of the Homeric epics. Because they...

Reissuing works originally published between 1958 and 1993, this five-volume set offers a selection of scholarship on the greatest classical poet, whose two monumental epics, the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey', remain foundational to the Western cultural tradition.

The role of poetic allusion in classical Greek poetry, to Homer especially, has often largely been neglected or even almost totally ignored. This book, first published in 1990, clarifies the place of Homer in Greek education, as well as adding to the interpretation of many important tragedies.

Focussing on the dramatic masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and how these writers imitated and alluded to other poetry, the author reveals the immense dependence on Homer which can be seen throughout the corpus of Attic tragedy. It is argued that the practice of the art of...

Here is presented a succinct and insightful account of the reception of the Iliad and Odyssey from antiquity to the mid-twentieth century. The overall result is less a systematic history than a series of independent studies differing in scale and focus, the chapter on Gladstone being the most comprehensive and detailed. First published in 1958.

The author gives greatest attention to those who made active use of Homer rather than passive, even if admiring, readers: Virgil because he wrote the Aeneid, Gladstone because he brought him to prominence in Oxford...

The author here reassesses the concept of masculinity, and argues that it cannot be seen as an absolute standard, but only as the product of perpetual conflict between competing and unstable models.

The argument is sustained by a close reading of the problematic conflict between gendered values in eighteenth-century classical learning. Pope s Homer ensured the continuation of the tradition of using the Iliad and Odyssey to teach privileged boys how to become more manly . This book examines this pedagogy in its socio-literary context, and concludes that Pope s...