New Publication: Commentary on Homer's Odyssey Books 9-12 (Dickinson College Commentaries)

Today is publication/launch day for an exciting project I've been working on since the summer of 2020: a commentary on Books 9-12 of Homer's Odyssey for the Dickinson College Commentaries series (DCC). The commentary is a collaboration with Chris Francese at Dickinson College and our Oberlin professor, mentor, and friend, the great classicist Tom Van Nortwick. I contributed the grammatical notes and Tom wrote the brilliant interpretive essays. Even if you don't read ancient Greek, Tom's essays will give you a deeper understanding and appreciation of Homer's art, as well as a sense of why, after sitting in a classroom listening to this man talk about ancient literature, I had to become a classics major.

This is my second DCC commentary, following a commentary on Selections from Bede's Ecclesiastical History (2017). And the Homer team is currently hard at work on a DCC commentary on Books 5-8 of the Odyssey.

One of the greatest pleasures of creating this commentary, aside from working with Tom and Chris, was reading the text with students from Dickinson and Carleton in June, July, August, and December 2021. The students carefully read through the text and commentary with special attention to the vocabulary lists, helping to create (at least for these four books) what I think is the best Homeric lexicon available.