Are the Iliad and the Odyssey just charming poetic fantasies? Or do they give a more or less accurate picture of the Mycenaean period, the early Dark Age or Homer's own era? Do archaeological discoveries like Schliemann's excavations at Troy bear out Homer's account of the Trojan War?

These great questions have generated decades of discussion, but they have seldom been considered with Sir Moses Finley's unique combination of clarity, penetrating intelligence and complete lack of prejudice. Drawing on a deep understanding of oral poetry and an unrivalled knowledge of early Greece, he offers a totally fresh analysis of Homer's depiction of kinship and community, Helen and Hector, morals and values, Paris, Priam and the gods. When The World of Odysseus was published to great acclaim in 1954, it at once aroused controversy. This second edition confirms the central claims he advanced so brilliantly in the first publication.

(on the back cover)

M.I.芬利（M.I.Finley，1912–1986），著名古典學傢、劍橋大學古代史教授。17歲獲得哥倫比亞大學法學碩士學位，之後轉嚮古代史研究，1954年接受劍橋大學的邀請，前往英國。他將文化、經濟和社會學範式運用於古代世界研究，對傳統古典學方法形成瞭有益補充，代錶作品有《奧德修斯的世界》《古代經濟》《古代世界的政治》。因其卓越的學術貢獻，芬利於1979年受封爵士。