Introduction

This online publication offers the complete critical edition of Eustathius’ Commentary on the Iliad by Marchinus van der Valk, printed in 4 volumes by Brill (Commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem pertinentes ad fidem Codicis Laurentiani editi, 1971-1987), as well as a new critical edition of Eustathius’ Commentary on the Odyssey, edited by Eric Cullhed (University of Uppsala) and S. Douglas Olson (University of Minnesota). The latter includes an up-to-date standard text, critical, citation and source apparatus, and English translation. The work is still ongoing, but the preface and the commentary on books 1-8 (α – Θ) are now available. Both editions follow the pagination of the sixteenth century edition by Nicolaus Majoranus.

The Byzantine scholar and rhetorician Eustathius of Thessalonica composed his two commentaries during the latter half of the twelfth century CE. The Commentaries collect material from a wide range of different sources which explain or expand on words, phrases and ideas in the Homeric epics. Original comments are blended with extracts from earlier commentators, especially the Homeric scholia. The text is an important source for fragments of otherwise lost works of ancient literature, for the history of exegesis and lexicography, and for Byzantine cultural history. .

Commentary on the Odyssey

This online publication offers a new text edition of the Byzantine scholar and rhetorician Eustathius of Thessalonica’s Commentary on the Odyssey, composed during the latter half of the twelfth century CE. The Commentary collects material from a wide range of different sources which explain or expand on words, phrases and ideas in the Homeric epic. Original comments are blended with extracts from earlier commentators, especially the Homeric scholia. The text is an important source for fragments of otherwise lost works of ancient literature, for the history of exegesis and lexicography, and for Byzantine cultural history. This is the first complete critical edition of the text, and the first translation of it into a modern language.

Editors for 'Commentary on the Odyssey'

Eric Cullhed (University of Uppsala) and S. Douglas Olson (University of Minnesota) offer an up-to-date standard text, critical, citation and source apparatus, and English translation. The preface and the commentary on books one through four are now available. Two further books will be added annually. The expected date of completion is 2030.

Pagination

This edition of Eustathius of Thessalonica, Commentary on the Odyssey follows the pagination (physical structure) of the sixteenth century edition by Nicolaus Majoranus. This also applies to the Commentary on the Iliad.

The edition follows the page and line breaks in the Rome edition. Pages in Stallbaum’s edition and folia in P and M are also indicated. The text is accompanied by an English translation. Owing to the lexicographic function of Eustathius’ commentaries, Greek words are often transliterated rather than translated. Explanations of these words are added within square brackets, unless Eustathius himself explains them in the same section. Greek words that form part of the syntax, but whose phonology or etymology is significant for the argument, are translated with a transliteration added within square brackets. Round parentheses indicate explanatory supplements of the translation.