Criticism

Baldick, Julian. “The Iliad.” In Homer and the Indo-Europeans: Comparing Mythologies, pp. 46-98. London: I. B. Tauris Publishers, 1994.

Traces extensive narrative and thematic resemblances between the Iliad and a selection of Indo-European mythological texts, especially the Sanskrit epic the Ramayana.

Bloom, Harold, ed. Homer's The Iliad, New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987, 160 p.

Collection of nine essays by various contributors on such subjects as Homeric fantasy, characterization, and style.

Clark, Matthew. “Chryses's Supplication: Speech Act and Mythological Allusion.” Classical Antiquity 17, no. 1 (April 1998): 5-32.

Elucidates the opening scene of the Iliad involving Chryses and his request that the Greeks release his daughter, drawing parallels with Priam's supplication to Achilles at the close of the epic.

Davies, Malcolm. “Agamemnon's Apology and the Unity of the Iliad.” Classical Quarterly 45, no. 1 (January-June 1995): 1-8.

Studies Agamemnon's speech in the Iliad (at 19.95ff), noting a range of stylistic traits that point toward the tragic unity of the epic and its theme of human suffering.

Due, Casey. “Achilles's Golden Amphora in Aeschines's against Timarchus: Afterlife of Oral Tradition.” Classical Philology 96, no. 1 (January 2001): 33-47.

Comments on the fluidity of the Iliad's textual tradition and on the possibilities of creating a “multitext” of the poem.

Friedman, Rachel. “Divine Dissension and the Narrative of the Iliad.” Helios 28, no. 2 (fall 2001): 99-119.

Highlights the polyphonic narrative quality of the Iliad by focusing on its central portion, Books 13 to 15, and explores the analogous and sometimes conflicting roles of Zeus and the poem's author.

Hopkins, Lisa. “The Iliad and the Henriad: Epics and Brothers.” Classical and Modern Literature 19, no. 2 (winter 1999): 149-71.

Considers the near-epic mode of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 and Henry V, based on the relationship of these dramas to the Iliad.

Lynn-George, M. “Structures of Care in the Iliad.” Classical Quarterly 46, no. 1 (January-June 1996): 1-26.

Probes the cultural dynamics of care and kindness expressed in the world of the Iliad, especially in various similes Homer juxtaposed to the cruelty and violence of epic warfare.

MacCary, W. Thomas. Childlike Achilles: Ontology and Phylogeny in the Iliad. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, 276 p.

Applies Freudian and Hegelian ontological principles to produce a largely psychoanalytical understanding of Achilles and his struggle toward self-conception in the Iliad.

Olson, S. Douglas. “Equivalent Speech-Introduction Formulae in the Iliad.” Mnemosyne 47, no. 2 (April 1994): 145-51.

Questions the critical contention that Homer employed a pattern in his use of introductory formulae and epithets in the Iliad, arguing that the poet's choices appear to be random.

Papaioannou, Sophia. “Vergilian Diomedes Revisited: The Reevaluation of the Iliad.” Mnemosyne 53, no. 2 (April 2000): 193-217.

Underscores the parallelism between Diomedes and Aeneas in the Homeric and post-Homeric traditions before examining Vergil's depiction of Diomedes in the Aeneid.

Saunders, K. B. “The Wounds in Iliad 13-16.” Classical Quarterly 49, no. 2 (July-December 1999): 345-63.

Analyzes fourteen anatomically inexplicable or potentially “miraculous” wounds described in the Iliad.

Silk, M. S. “The Poem.” In Homer: The Iliad, pp. 32–105. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Examines stylization and immediacy in the poem, as well as Homer's thematic contrasting of glory and suffering in war.

Staten, Henry. “The Circulation of Bodies in the Iliad.” New Literary History 24, no. 2 (spring 1993): 339-61.

Focuses on the socio-sexual interaction of glory, grief, and mourning as depicted in the Iliad.

Toohey, Peter. “Homer, Iliad.” In Reading Epic: An Introduction to the Ancient Narratives, pp. 2043. London: Routledge, 1992.

Surveys the background, structure, principal themes, and major characters of the Iliad.

Van Duzer, Chet A. “Three Missions in the Iliad.” In Duality and Structure in the Iliad and Odyssey, pp. 93-142. New York: Peter Lang, 1996.

Documents parallelism and structural duality in the night mission of Odysseus and Diomedes (Iliad Book 10), Hera's seduction of Zeus (Book 14), and Priam's attempt to recover the corpse of Hector (Book 24).

Zellner, H. M. “Skepticism in Homer?” Classical Quarterly 44, no. 2 (July-December 1994): 308-15.

Suggests that a critical tradition of attributing Lockean skepticism to Homer, particularly in regard to his Muse Prayer in Book 2 of the Iliad, is unwarranted.

Additional coverage of Homer's life and works is contained in the following sources published by the Gale Group: Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Vol. 1, 16; Concise Dictionary of World Literary Biography, Vol. 1; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 176; DISCovering Authors: British; DISCovering Authors: Canadian; DISCovering Authors Modules: Most-Studied Authors and Poets; Epics for Students, Vol. 1; Literature and Its Times, Vol. 1; Literature Resource Center; Poetry Criticism, Vol. 23; Reference Guide to World Literature, Ed. 2; World Literature Criticism Supplement, Ed. 1.