This book attempts to come to grips with a set of widely ranging but connected problems concerning myths: their relation to folktales on the one hand, to rituals on the other; the validity and scope of the structuralist theory of myth; the range of possible mythical functions; the effects of developed social institutions and literacy; the character and meaning of ancient Near-Eastern myths and their influence on Greece; the special forms taken by Greek myths and their involvement with rational modes of thought; the status of myths as expressions of the unconscious, as allied with dreams, as...

This is a shortened and rearranged version of The Songs of Homer, Professor Kirk's vivid and comprehensive account of the background and development of the Homeric poems and of their quality as literature. His purpose remains the same: to develop a comprehensive and unified view of the nature of the Iliad and the Odyssey, of their relation to the oral heroic poetry of the Greek Dark Age, and of their creation as poems by two great singers in the eighth century BC. The essential attitudes and arguments of the earlier work have been retained, but the whole has been reduced in detail by some...

This is the first volume of a projected six-volume Commentary on Homer's Iliad, under the General Editorship of professor G. S. Kirk. Professor Kirk himself is the editor of the present volume, which covers the first four Books of Iliad. It consists of four introductory chapters, dealing in particular with rhythm and formular techniques, followed by the detailed commentary which aims at helping serious readers by attempting to identify and deal with most of the difficulties which might stand in the way of a sensitive and informed response to the poem. The Catalogues in Book 2 recieve...

This, the fourth volume in the six-volume Commentary on the Iliad being prepared under the General Editorship of Professor G. S. Kirk, covers Books 13-16, including the Battle for the Ships, the Deception of Zeus and the Death of Patroklos. Three introductory essays discuss the role of Homer's gods in his poetry; the origins and development of the epic diction; and the transmission of the text, from the bard's lips to our own manuscripts. It is now widely recognized that the first masterpiece of Western literature is an oral poem; Professor Janko's detailed commentary aims to show how this...

This is Volume Five of the major six-volume Commentary on Homer's Iliad now being prepared under the general editorship of Professor G.S. Kirk. Volumes I and II, published in 1985 and 1990 respectively, were edited by Professor Kirk himself. Like its predecessors, the present volume (the first to be edited by one of Professor Kirk's four collaborators) consists of four introductory essays (including discussions of similes and other features of narrative style) followed by the commentary. The Greek text is not included. This project is the first large-scale commentary on the Iliad for nearly...

This is the second volume in the major six-volume commentary on the Iliad now being prepared under Professor Kirk's direction. The volume consists of four introductory essays followed by the commentary itself (the Greek text is not included). This project is the first large-scale commentary on the Iliad for nearly 100 years, and takes special account of language, style, and thematic structure while examining the complex social and cultural background of Homer's epic.