Homer

The Illiad and the Odyssey stand as the cornerstones of Western literature, benefitting from a tradition of reading that spans well over two millennia. Already in the sixth century BCE they were the object of criticism. Later, the great scholars working in the library of Alexandria edited the poems and wrote important commentaries on them. Summaries of these scholars' notes made their way in to the margins of Byzantine manuscripts; from Byzantium the annotated manuscripts travelled to Italy, and there the Homeric poems first appeared in print. The ancient notes on them still influence our…