The 'red Macmillan' Iliad in the edition of W. Leaf, which had served since the 1880s, was replaced in 1978 and 1984 by the two-volume edition of M.M. Willcock. Coverage of twelve books in each volume demands concise introduction and commentary, but Willcock is not omissive. He includes, for example, mention of significant aspects of Homeric diction more fully in the early lines of each book, in order that the student may begin on any particular one; and the tight compass does not prevent him engaging in, or referring to, problems of composition or text addressed by scholars more advanced than the sixth-formers and undergraduates for whom the edition is primarily intended. (from the back cover)
Author
In the Western classical tradition, Homer (Greek: Ὅμηρος) is considered the author of The Iliad and The Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest of ancient Greek epic poets. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature. When he lived is unknown. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400 years before his own time, which would place him at around 850 BCE, while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BCE. Most modern researchers place Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BCE. The formative influence of the Homeric epics in shaping Greek culture was widely recognized, and Homer was described as the teacher of Greece. Homer's works, which are about fifty percent speeches, provided models in persuasive speaking and writing that were emulated throughout the ancient and medieval Greek worlds. Fragments of Homer account for nearly half of all identifiable Greek literary papyrus finds.
