The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle

A lively and venturesome study of the relationship between the Homeric epics and the largely lost Cyclic poems... A very interesting and accessible book.

This is a bracingly skeptical treatment of some important issues... A fresh, engaging exercise in heterodox scholarship.

[Jonathan Burgess] has firmly established the case that the Cyclic epics should be regarded as more authoritative representatives of Greek tradition about the Trojan War than the poems of Homer... Essential reading for everyone seriously interested in Homer and Greek epic tradition.

The Iliad and the Odyssey continue to be translated anew, and noticed when they are. Less widely noticed [is] other poetry about the Trojan War... The range and argument of the book make it valuable to any with an interest in what we call Homeric, and indeed, in ancient traditions generally.

Both the author's remarkable knowledge of previous scholarship on the topic and his eminently moderate and well-balanced approach make this volume a most valuable resource for approaching this complex field, and it immediately becomes indispensable for the study of Homeric and early non-Homeric epic.

Anyone who has a serious interest in Homer and the Greek epic tradition should find this a valuable and thought-provoking book.

A well argued book that packs a great deal of scholarship and insight into less than two-hundred pages. It deserves careful and repeated reading.