The
Homeric Questions
of the Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry (3rd cent. CE) is an important work in the history of Homeric criticism. In contrast to the philosopher’s allegorical readings of Homer in
De Antro
and
De Styge
, in the
Porphyry solves
problemata
by applying the dictum that “the poet explains himself”. Based on a new collation of the manuscripts, this edition of Porphyry’s
on the
Iliad
is the first since 1880. The preface contains sections on Porphyry’s life and works, the manuscript tradition of the text, scholarship on the
, and the principles of this edition. The editor has eliminated much that had been wrongly attributed to Porphyry on stylistic grounds and has constructed text according to a strict distinction between extracts of the
, epitomes of the extracts, and Porphyrian scholia ‑ all confusingly interspersed in the old text. A facing English translation at last makes this text accessible to the Greek-less reader. The commentary explains Porphyry’s arguments and the editor’s textual decisions. The editor sheds new light on Porphyry’s use of the dictum that “the poet explains himself”, by differentiating it from that of Alexandria textual critics.