This chapter considers the place of epic, above all Homer, in three overlapping areas of ancient Greek and Roman culture – education at all levels, elite literary culture, and the more specialised interpretations of scholars and philosophers. Homer was central to Greek education and Hunter considers the various types of evidence for this centrality – anecdotes, literary descriptions, papyri – and the reasons for the greater attention given to the Iliad over the Odyssey. He then illustrates the place of epic in the creative poetry and prose of the Hellenistic and imperial periods and finally samples the scholarly and philosophical approaches taken to Homer from Ptolemaic Alexandria to late antiquity. The chapter brings together a range of authors and thinkers, from Quintilian to Horace, Dio Chrysostom to Eustathius, and Porphyry’s remarkable allegorical treatment of Homer.

Horace was very self-conscious about his relationship with the nine canonical Greek lyric poets, and in his Odes he devoted a lot of attention to charting what he did and did not share with them. He is at once drawn to them as models and conscious of how distant he is from them in time and in his social setting, which was very different from theirs. Although he shares many important themes with them, he highlights how original he is in his depictions of the Italian landscape and of the Roman systems of organising time.

The essay serves as a general introduction to Homeric scholia. It discusses the different types of Homeric scholia, their content and in which manuscripts they can be found. It also provides an overview of the editions available for each type of scholia and related sources.