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| Sine Qua Non for Homeric StudiesWe are forever in Richard J. Cunliffe's debt: he has provided us with a lexicon that gives immense assistance to those of us who study Homeric poetry. As some have already noted, Cunliffe's work is thorough and indispensable for engaging in the reading of Homer. The entries for Greek verbs contain the place where one can find instances of the word in the Homeric literature as well as the participial or infinitival forms of the Greek verbs. I have been completely satisfied with this Greek lexicon. The binding for my copy is also satisfactory.
great maybe?i got this book for a class but I never used and I played guitar instead. I got an A in the class, well a one legged A (an F)
Add my voice to the chorus of praise for this excellent resourceI wish I could think of something to add to the glowing praise of this tremendously helpful resource, but about all I can do is express my hearty agreement. I've been working my way through the Homeric course by Schoder and Horrigan, and this lexicon has been a great boon. The appendices at the back of Schoder and Horrigan are handy for quick reference, but for the secondary meanings and obscure forms, Cunliffe's Lexicon is a lifesaver. It will save time, reduce frustration, and most importantly, increase the enjoyment and appreciation of Homer's works. As for the binding, I haven't had any problems or concerns, and I carry mine with me frequently in my travels. For me, the lighter weight and smaller size are an additional advantage. Now if only it were available in electronic format...
a heroic contributionThis lexicon has been a tremendous help to me just when I am working my way through the verses of Homer using Clide Pharr's text. At first, I did not think it would be required at all since Pharr's book also provides a comprehensive vocabulary for Iliad book I. However, It proves to be a great and indispensible tool, simply because it provides you with confidence when you realize that you actually grasp the true and exact meaning of the words as well as the capacity to pin point the correct tense forms that Pharr doesn't always care to elaborate. Just as Andrew Lang once said that "the study [of Greek] is averse to indolent intellectual ways; it will not put up with a 'there or thereabouts,' any more than mathematical ideas admit of being made to seem 'extremely plausible,'" so it is plain that to be able to read Homer with pleasure we need all the help to thoroughly understand him which is why Cunliffe's lexicon comes to be a heroic contribution to the Homeric study in the English speaking world.
Cunliffe's text does have some flaws, i.e. not being so userfriendly (the lists of forms and occurences make it difficult to find a word's definition). However, it's obvious that he did "avoid no pain and shirk no difficulty," as he claims in his introduction, to prepare this mavelous lexicon. My point is that may be it's time for someone to revise and edit the book for new generation of users. It's a pity that fewer and fewer of us care to read Homer in the original nowadays that there has been no new efforts to assist modern readers to enjoy these great poems. Richard J. Cunliffe was a lawyer who took all the troubles to compile this wonderful book so that he may, by his own admission, "bring the (new) readers to Homer." What a lofty goal indeed.
The following are tips for those who work by themselves to read Homer in the Original. Nota Bene: Greek is indeed a very difficult language; the fact that Homer's epic has a very extensive vocabulary and irregularities of forms doesn't help us as self-learners either. This misfortune is further aggravated when we realize that All of the commercially available direct-to-Homer courses out there are "lesson-based approach," meaning that a student will be introduced with bit by bit of grammatical rules and new words, supplied with translating exercises until you know enough grammar and vocabs to take on the original Homeric texts. This, unfortunately, lead you nowhere near the "reading experience" one would naturally expect given the hardship and time spent to learn this difficult tongue. We end up with ability to "parse" verses with little joy or even understanding. By the time you reach Pharr's Lesson XXVI or so (which can take up to 6-7 months if you manage to do one Chapter a week), you will realize that you know so little Greek, has no reading faculty whatsoever, and can read nothing outside the texts learned in previous lessons - which can be understood only by heavily parsing. Your next impulse is either to quit or to face a serious self-doubt. This, in short, is not how we want to approach Homer and new reading approach must be employed. However, you do not have to wait until someone decides to revise Pharr's treatise; you can move things up on your own. First, you need to put up with Pharr until you have learn subjunctive and optative mood. Then you may starting accelerating your reading by procuring a text with the opposite-page translation; Loeb series being one of the best but you may want to try Pulleyn's Iliad: Book One which offers a comprehensive commentary and a set of vocabulary at the end. Pamela A. Draper's Iliad, Book 1 is also tremendously helpful with almost all vocabs sufficiently explained just under the actual text, albeit without facing translation. "All the Greek Verbs" is surprisingly helpful too (though not specifically written for hHomeric Greek) it can confirm your suspicions about some dubious verb forms thereby saving you a lot of time which, otherwise, will have to be spent looking up in Cunliffe. With all these tools ready, you are now ready to "read" Homer, first by studying the text with an aid of the facing translation, noting/hi-lighting new words or constructions and their meaning. In this way, you will be able to read, continuously with understanding, up to 15 or even 20 verses at a time without feeling estranged by the original Greek text. Then you can take a break from reading and concrete your comprehension by carefully looking up new words/expressions and their meanings in the above-mentioned referenced tools. At this point, Pharr is still useful as a reference source, especially its vocab-lists which contain roots and stems of all verbs. Once you repeat this process a couple of time you will start to feel that your faculty of comprehension is improved, and that Homer's language is not "Greek to you" anymore. By the middle of book one, you will find that you can comprehend most of the original text just by sight-read. And when you apply more attention to the text, the beauty of music and cadence of Homeric verses runs through you while you understand them perfectly without having to re-translate back to English. Now you "read" Homer.
Homeric tool.This is an excellent book that is clearly set-out, very scholarly and much lighter and more convenient to use than Liddell and Scott. Indeed, it contains more information than L.&S., listing all uses in the Homeric texts of each indiviual word. It remains an essential tool for any serious English- speaking reader of Homer and is fantastic value at the price ! Dennis Riddiford.
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