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Benjamin Sammons. The Art and Rhetoric of the Homeric Catalogue. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. x, 233. $74.00. ISBN 978-0-19- 537568-8.
In this accomplished and readable book, Sammons does a remarkably thorough job of investigating "the function of Homer's catalogues in the contexts in which they appear" (3). After a close reading of two "paradigmatic" catalogues (Dione's in Iliad 5 of gods harmed by mortals and Calypso's in Odyssey 5 of goddesses whose love for mortals was thwarted by gods), Sammons proceeds to examine two catalogues of women (Zeus' of his lovers in Iliad 14 and Odysseus' of the famous women in the Nekuia of Odyssey 11) and two catalogues of objects (Odysseus' catalogue of trees in Odyssey 24 and Agamemnon's of gifts for Achilles in Iliad 9). A culminating chapter appropriately focuses on the most prominent Homeric example of the genre, the Catalogue of Ships in Iliad 2; a much shorter coda demonstrates how the catalogues of suitors in the Odyssey ironically deprive these characters of fame.
Sammons is thoroughly conversant...