Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery - Hardcover

Latacz, Joachim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199263086 ISBN 13: 9780199263080

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2004

Synopsis

In this book Joachim Latacz turns the spotlight of modern research on the much-debated question of whether the wealthy city of Troy described by Homer in the Iliad was a poetic fiction or a memory of historical reality.
Earlier excavations at the hill of Hisarlik, in Turkey, on the Dardanelles, brought no answer, but in 1988 a new archaeological enterprise, under the direction of Manfred Korfmann, led to a radical shift in understanding. Latacz, one of Korfmann's closest collaborators, traces the course of these excavations, and the renewed investigation of the imperial Hittite archives they have inspired. As he demonstrates, it is now clear that the background against which the plot of the Iliad is acted out is the historical reality of the thirteenth century BC. The Troy story as a whole must have arisen in this period, and we can detect traces of it in Homer's great poem.

About this title

Review:

...intellectually challenging. (Ian Rutherford, Journal of Hellenic Studies)

spellbinding ... Latacz's Troy and Homer offers undergraduates, graduates, and professors a compelling synthesis that whets our desire to learn more. (Adele J. Haft, Scripta Classica Israelica)

This is a vigorous, lucid, up-to-date and, on the whole, convincing book...it is destined to become a classic for our time. (Dr Donald F. Easton, Minerva)

The story is well told, with excellent maps, chronological tables and illustrations; the reader is kept on tenterhooks throughout. (TLS)

Joachim Latacz, the best Homeric scholar writing in German, brings the field up to date. The story is well told, with excellent maps, chronological tables and illustrations; the reader is kept on tenterhooks throughout. He draws attention to, and revives, the insights, many long since neglected, of scholars in the ancient world itself. (TLS)

Latacz's book is a substantial contribution (Joshua T. Katz, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 125.3)

[Latacz's] expositions bring clarity to many problems, and scholars of Antiquity, too, both young and old, will find ample instruction herein. (G.L. Huxley, Hermathena, Vol. 179)

Here is to be found much intellectual reward for readers who persevere; many of them will wish to keep a copy of Troy and Homer on their shelves. (G.L. Huxley, Hermathena, Vol. 179)

About the Author:

Joachim Latacz is Professor Emeritus at the University of Basel.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0199263086
• ISBN 13: 9780199263080
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 364