This book collects together the major published works, as well as some previously unpublished items, by Parry, who remains a major figure in Homeric studies. His work, which had been edited by his son, connected disparate contentions and observations made by preceding scholars on the Homeric question (as to who composed the poems, for example, and how they were composed). In formulating a consistent picture of what Homeric poetry was and what the conditions were that allowed it to come into being, his work continues to have a major impact in classics.

This is a paperback reissue of a title first published by Clarendon Press in 1970.