Aristotle's Lost Homeric Problems

This volume takes as its focus an oft-neglected work of ancient philosophy: Aristotle's lost <em>Homeric Problems</em>. The evidence for this lost work consists mostly of 'fragments' surviving in the Homeric <em>scholia</em> - comments in the margins of the medieval manuscripts of the Homeric epics mostly coming from lost commentaries on these epics - though the series of studies presented here puts forward a persuasive case that other sources have been overlooked. <p/>These studies focus on various aspects of the <em>Homeric Problems</em> and are grouped into three parts. The first deals with preliminary issues: the relationship of this lost work to the Homeric scholarship that came before it and to Aristotle's comments on Homeric scholarship in his extant <em>Poetics</em>; the evidence concerning the possible titles of this work; and a neglected early edition of the fragments. Following on from this the second part attempts to expand our knowledge of the <em>Homeric Problems</em> through an examination in context of quotations from (or allusions to) Homer in Aristotle's extant works and specifically in the <em>History of Animals</em> the <em>Rhetoric</em> and <em>Poetics</em> 21 while Part Three consists of four studies on select (and in most cases disregarded) fragments. Collectively the chapters support the conclusion that Aristotle in the <em>Homeric Problems</em> aimed to defend Homer against his critics but not slavishly and without employing allegorical interpretation; within the context of a renewed interest in Aristotle's lost works the volume as a whole brings much needed illumination to a virtually unknown ancient work involving not one but two giants of the classical world.<br>