The fragments of Matro of Pitane (c. 300 BC) offer insights not only into the largely forgotten and obscure late-classical genre of epic parody, but also into 4th-century Athenian history, the role of food and dining in antiquity, and the history of the text of Homer and the reception of the
Iliad
and the
Odyssey
in the pre-Alexanderian period. Sens and Olson offer a new text of the 144 surviving lines of Matro's parodies based on a fresh examination of the manuscripts; a translation; a detailed philological, historical, and gastronomic commentary; and a lively introduction to the poet and his times.