Uncovering Writing

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very good reference book that takes some pretty deep dives into how Homer’s works were received in antiquity. It’s broad so I’m sure I’ll come back to it in pieces and work through the meat that Hunter provides. I was very pleased that he included a great deal of original text (Greek and Latin) with translations, so that I can work on my own vocabulary and readings. The large bibliography at the end is an excellent jumping off point for further research.

I was fascinated by the section on Aristarchus of Samothrace (pp. 148-166). He was one of the greatest of the Homeric scholiasts and one of the important librarians at Alexandria. The section covers athetesis, the condemning of so-called non-Homeric parts that are thought to have crept into his poems. Sections were seen as spurious for various reasons, such as not being in the style of Homer, seemingly being redundant, or even for threatening contemporary understandings or morals. Thankfully, Aristarchus did not simply throw away the lines he felt didn’t belong, but marked them, so we can look ourselves to see what we might think today and reflect on why he made the choices he did.

Two things that I didn’t like about the book were that the text wasn’t very accessible. It is hard to write such a detailed analysis and also make it flowing writing, but it is possible. But, if I want to look at this as purely a reference book, then perhaps that isn’t as important. Second, and this is less forgivable, the book had no conclusion, further thoughts, or anything to tie together the great work Hunter produced. The text just stops, like hitting the edge of a papyrus fragment. One wonders what Hunter might have said at the end.