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Rating: 
Summary: Understanding Homer's "The Iliad" and the wrath of Achilles
Review: Elaine Strong Skill's Cliffs Notes for Homer's "The Iliad" begins with the life of Homer and the question of authorship for the epic poem, a list of the characters on the Achaian and Trojan sides as well as the Gods (can't tell the players without a scorecard), a brief synopsis of the plot, and a background section on the Trojan War followed by an account of the Fall of Troy. These last sections are particularly helpful in explaining not only what happened the first nine years of the war but also what supposedly caused the conflict in the first place. This is slightly problematic because most of the background material comes from sources other than Homer, such as Euripides' play "Iphigenia at Aulus" and Virgil's "Aeneid," which necessarily means we "know" more about the history of the Trojan War than did Homer himself. The Summaries and Commentaries section goes through "The Iliad" book by book and tends to spend more time on summary than on commentary. Skill then provides character analyses of Achilles, Patroklos, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Nestor, Hektor and Priam, followed by Critical Essays on "The Hero and Homeric Culture," "The Gods, the Greeks, and Fate," "Sacrifices and Ceremonies," "Funeral Rites" and "Funeral Games." As always with the little yellow books with the black stripes, the background material is most useful to teachers and students alike trying to work their way through Homer's epic poem. My biggest complaint is somewhat idiosyncratic, in that I wish Skill has dealt explicitly with Greek literary and cultural concepts like ""arete," "harmatia," and "ethos." I freely admit to preferring "The Iliad" to "The Odyssey," knowing full well this is probably a minority position. But I have always enjoyed teaching a giant section on the Trojan War, that includes "Iphigenia at Aulis," excerpts on the Fall of Troy from "The Aeneid," Euripides' "Trojan Women," Aeschylus' "Agamemnon" and Sophocles "Eletrca." Certainly it is hard to appreciate the irony of Agamemnon and his female war prizes without knowing about what happens to him before and after the Trojan war with regards to Iphigenia and Cassandra. Using these other classical works provides wonderful opportunities to look at how different great writers dealt with the same characters.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding Homer's "The Iliad" and the wrath of Achilles
Review: Elaine Strong Skill's Cliffs Notes for Homer's "The Iliad" begins with the life of Homer and the question of authorship for the epic poem, a list of the characters on the Achaian and Trojan sides as well as the Gods (can't tell the players without a scorecard), a brief synopsis of the plot, and a background section on the Trojan War followed by an account of the Fall of Troy. These last sections are particularly helpful in explaining not only what happened the first nine years of the war but also what supposedly caused the conflict in the first place. This is slightly problematic because most of the background material comes from sources other than Homer, such as Euripides' play "Iphigenia at Aulus" and Virgil's "Aeneid," which necessarily means we "know" more about the history of the Trojan War than did Homer himself. The Summaries and Commentaries section goes through "The Iliad" book by book and tends to spend more time on summary than on commentary. Skill then provides character analyses of Achilles, Patroklos, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Nestor, Hektor and Priam, followed by Critical Essays on "The Hero and Homeric Culture," "The Gods, the Greeks, and Fate," "Sacrifices and Ceremonies," "Funeral Rites" and "Funeral Games." As always with the little yellow books with the black stripes, the background material is most useful to teachers and students alike trying to work their way through Homer's epic poem. My biggest complaint is somewhat idiosyncratic, in that I wish Skill has dealt explicitly with Greek literary and cultural concepts like ""arete," "harmatia," and "ethos." I freely admit to preferring "The Iliad" to "The Odyssey," knowing full well this is probably a minority position. But I have always enjoyed teaching a giant section on the Trojan War, that includes "Iphigenia at Aulis," excerpts on the Fall of Troy from "The Aeneid," Euripides' "Trojan Women," Aeschylus' "Agamemnon" and Sophocles "Eletrca." Certainly it is hard to appreciate the irony of Agamemnon and his female war prizes without knowing about what happens to him before and after the Trojan war with regards to Iphigenia and Cassandra. Using these other classical works provides wonderful opportunities to look at how different great writers dealt with the same characters.
Rating: 
Summary: A must-have
Review: especially if you're new to Greek, or are somewhat intimidated by Homer. Any student studying The Iliad should have a copy of this to help them keep the families and factions in order. However - if you're already familiar with Greek and/or Homer, this won't provide you with much info that you don't already know. I would think the student would benefit the most from this.
Rating:
Summary: A must-have
Review: especially if you're new to Greek, or are somewhat intimidated by Homer. Any student studying The Iliad should have a copy of this to help them keep the families and factions in order. However - if you're already familiar with Greek and/or Homer, this won't provide you with much info that you don't already know. I would think the student would benefit the most from this.
Rating:
Summary: Great tool
Review: This book really helped me w/paraphrasing and understanding characters in the Iliad. Since summarizing a whole 18-page chapter (book) isn't sumthing i do, let alone understanding it, Cliff Notes where GREAT!!!
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