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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study is a revision and expansion of my doctoral dissertation, "Homer the Theologian" (Yale, 1979). The teachers and colleagues who have helped are too numerous to list individually, but a few deserve special mention. Lowry Nelson, Jr., gave generously of his time, energy, and perceptions throughout the duration of the project, as did Jack Winkler. I am deeply indebted to both, not only for their judicious suggestions and advice, but for their constant encouragement. Their contributions have been so numerous that it would be impossible to acknowledge them as they occur. Others with whom Ihave discussed the project, in person or by letter, include C. J.Herington and A. H. Armstrong, both of whom gave me valuable ideas and helped me to develop a perspective on my material. Many friends and colleagues at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens also contributed in one way or another. Of these, David Jordan (with whom I shared many valuable and enjoyable hours over Plato) in particular contributed ideas and facts that have found their way, however distorted, into this study. I must also thank Nancy Winter and the other librarians of the Blegen Library of the American School, as well as the librarians of the Ecole Francaise d'Athenes, the Deutsches Archaologisches Institut at Athens, the Gennadeion Library, and the Yale Classics Library, all of whom made me welcome and gave me generous assistance. During the year I devoted exclusively to the dissertation, I was supported by a doctoral fellowship from the Canada Council for the Arts. I completed the revision of the study as a junior fellow of the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C., with additional support from the Crake Foundation (Sackville, N.B., Canada). Like all of those who XIV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS have had the pleasure and privilege ofworking at the center, I am deeply indebted to Bernard Knox and to the center's librarian, Jeno Platthy. The resources of Dumbarton Oaks, the Library of Congress, and the Georgetown University Library were also generously opened to me. My colleagues at the center in 1982-83 contributed greatly to the revision— often without knowing it—but among them Kathy Eden deserves special thanks for a wealth of suggestions and bibliography, as does James Lesher for sorting out the tangled skein of my ideas on several points. To John Dillon, who read the book for the University of California Press, goes credit not only for numerous corrections and encouraging insights, but for suggestions that led to a substantial reorganization of the opening chapters. The frontispiece was photographed from the copy of Chapman's Odyssey in the Gonzales Lodge Collection, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, and is published here with permission. The jacket illustrationis a detail of a drawing by Raphaelin the Royal Library, Windsor Castle. Copyright reserved. Reproduced by gracious permission of Her Majesty Queen ElizabethII. Final preparation of the manuscript was completed in the stimulating atmosphere of the Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Columbia University , where my colleagues again contributed significantly to my work. Particular thanks are due to Larry Miller, who saved me from several errors in the subchapter on the Arabs, and to Peter Cowe of the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, who gave generously of his time and expertise to help me with the passage of Philo's De providentia discussed in chapter aA. At the University of California Press, Doris Kretschmer has nurtured the book with patient energy for several years. Her choice of readers has led to substantial improvements in the text. Finally, my companion and former colleague Susan Rotroff has contributed many valuable ideas and suggestions, but above and beyond these it has been her constant help and encouragement that have made the work possible. The Society of Fellows in the Humanities Columbia University May, 1985 ...

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