{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.027841693511274735, 'fraction_numerical': 0.007132995858260469, 'mean_word_length': 4.76525198938992, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
(M.) Mueller The Iliad. Second edition. Pp. x + 206. London: Bristol Classical Press, 2009. (First edition published by Allen & Unwin, 1984). Paper, £16.99. ISBN: 978-1-85399-715-0.

The aim of this book is to provide a historical analysis of the text of the Iliad. In the Introduction M. skilfully summarises views on historicity, main themes, characters and gods, and introduces the uninitiated to a discussion about the poet Homer and the Homeric problem, the oral nature of the work and its narrative priorities, formulas and repeated passages, and the heroic hexameter. The second chapter is a running commentary on aspects of the creation of the plot. M. juxtaposes related scenes essential for the plot and helps the reader to attend to their meanings. He correctly underlines that Homer’s creativity consists in his presentation of events at the end of the war and argues convincingly that the end of the poem is neither tagged on nor a re-evaluation of the heroic code but a refl ection on the meaning of human life. M. concludes that the actual Homeric battle does not live up to the ideal as demonstrated by the killing of an injured Patroclus and Hector’s fl ight before Achilles. However, these cases depict the reality of war, and M. should not read them as violations of the heroic code. The detailed analysis of the death speeches’ common motifs is illuminating, as is the discussion of how Homer weaves short encounters into larger narratives; here M. examines the catalogues, the aristeiai and the chains of retribution associated with grief, anger and revenge. In his examination of the narrative function of similes, M. argues that the poet uses them to slow down the pace of the narrative, and he demonstrates the variety of their content by examining common themes. He successfully establishes the relation between detail and narrative context and highlights the contrast they create with the Iliadic image. Divine intervention is related to natural causality. The issue of responsibility is treated by examining its role in the liability of heroes. Athena’s intervention in Book 22 is correctly interpreted as confi rmation of Achilles’ credit for the result. ‘Ever-remote’ Apollo and ‘everpresent’ Athena are contrasted with the contempt expressed about Ares and Aphrodite, and it is remarked that divine confl icts differ from human because they conclude with reconciliation. However, M.’s analysis of moira is oversimplifi ed and fails to acknowledge that fi xed fate and free human will co-exist. There follows a statistical overview of repeated phrases. M. emphasises that repetition is not a product of oral composition but a part of rhetorical strategy. He classifi es repetitions according to speaker–creator and clarifi es their purpose according to their frequency and distribution. Speech openers and closers, and phrases about warriors and gods, are analysed with the help of the Chicago Homer. Finally, he identifi es patterns within the Iliad and proves that repetitions are associated with names. In Chapter 7, M. focusses on Iliadic composition. He accepts a process of gradual ‘cut and paste’ composition and expansion with modest revision during Homer’s lifetime. In reconstructing the stages of the poem’s genesis, M. identifi es narrative cracks and poor cross-references which he explains as forms of discontinuity due to Homer’s poor editing, not to multiple authorship. In the fi nal chapter M. examines the ‘life’ of the Iliad starting with allegorical interpretation. He continues with Alexandrian and Byzantine scholarship (the treatment is unfairly short). M. engages in a concise history of the cultural travel of the Iliad from tragedy and Plato to Virgil, Chapman and Shakespeare and through them to Milton, Pope and the modern world of prose by investigating its appropriations in literature, translation and scholarship. The book can be read by both experts and the wider public, and it makes excellent points on all levels of textual analysis. Although the occasional use of statistics may confuse an uninitiated reader, the stories that they tell are intellectually challenging. M. believes in a single poet of the Iliad, gives him credit for artistic innovation, and presents in a well elaborated study a complete analysis of the text with breadth of scholarship and convincing arguments.