Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Superseded by Willcock's work, March 28, 2003
By A Customer
I have a great sentimental attachment to Benner's Selections, as it was with this textbook that I first read Homer in Greek. I loved the selections, etc.! However, as students have later come to me with their Homer reading projects, I've placed this side-by-side with the notes in M.M. Willcock's "Iliad of Homer: Books I-XII" and "Iliad of Homer: Books XIII-XXIV," and it just doesn't measure up. Willcock's work is fresher (1978/1984 vs. 1903), and he gives better and fuller help with Homer's language. (Also, he happens to be the more sensitive reader of Homer's poetry.) If there's a reason to stick with Benner, it's that it's cheaper and gives excellently chosen selections (grammar overview + text + notes) in one volume, as opposed to Willcock's two-volume format covering the entire Iliad. Also, you've just got to love a book (=Benner) that begins, "This edition of the Iliad includes the books commonly required for admission to American colleges..." Also, Benner has a wonderfully written and complete glossary in the back, whereas with Willcock you need also to buy a good Homer lexicon (that is, Cunliffe's "Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect," which is much better than Autenrieth's brief work IMHO).
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Intermediate-level Text, January 30, 2003
This text is probably the best choice for those who have spent a year learning the basics of Homeric (or Attic) Greek and want to experience some payoff for all the hours spent conjugating second aorists and declining endless varieties of third-declension nouns. The selections consist of long excerpts (five books of the Iliad are included in their totality) of the best parts of the Iliad. As a whole, the selections comprise a sort of "Essential Iliad" inasmuch as they convey the scope of the entire poem from the wrath of Achilles to the burial of Hector. My only gripe with the editors' choice of what to include is with the omission of Hera's deception of Zeus. Along with the selections is a commentary which helps elucidate those words and phrases here and there that are likely to cause the relative beginner trouble in construing the sense. In general, the commentary is quite good, though it does let the reader down from time to time. It won't, for example, explain to you what the connective particle in line 8 of Book One means even though no beginner will know what to make of it. Thus, a bit more help could have been given, particularly in the area of particles. In addition to the commentary, there is a vocabulary comprising all the words used in the excerpts. This is a real bonus, since rifling through big lexicons can be tedious, particularly for a relative beginner. Also, all hapax legomena (words used only once) are listed at the bottom of every page of text. All in all, then, Benner's Selections From The Iliad is a must-have for those who want to expand upon an elementary understanding of Homeric Greek.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sine Qua Non, January 21, 2002
By A Customer
So, you've made it through a year of college-level classical Greek -- Attic, or perhaps one of those texts that starts out with Homeric Greek. Now you're ready to read the Iliad, the single greatest work of western literature. What you now need is a good solid school text, with vocabulary, grammatical appendices, and copious notes. This is the book for you. I used this as an undergraduate years ago and still cherish my hardcover copy. This is a new, paperback edition, presumably the same old standard-issue Benner. I know of none better. I've seen lots of school editions of the Iliad, many pre-dating and some post-dating Benner, but none compare with this edition for overall utility. Is there anything as exciting as reading the Iliad in Greek? It seems curious, perhaps even paradoxical, that a 2700 year old poem is as pure and as fresh as the morning dew, more alive and vibrant than anything that has been written since. For those who are coming to the poem for the first time, you can't do better than to have an old schoolmaster like Benner take you through the best parts of the poem with lots of helpful guidance.
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