Line numbers at the top left of each right-hand page refer to the Greek text. The right-margin numbers correspond to the lines of the English translation. A few lines that seem wrong or out of place have been omitted from the translation. These are:
Book One, line 296.
Book Eight, lines 73 and 74, 550 through 552.
Book Nine, line 416.
Book Ten, lines 191, 409 through 411, 497, 531.
Book Twelve, line 372.
Book Fourteen, line 269.
Book Fifteen, line 481.
Book Sixteen, lines 614 and 615.
The translator gratefully acknowledges help in the form of fellowship grants from the Bollingen Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Sally Fitzgerald was a close and invaluable critic of the entire work in progress. Until his death in 1968, Dudley Fitts gave the translation his strict and exhilarating attention. Penelope Laurans’s taste and discernment enhanced the quality of the final manuscripts. The enthusiasm of the translator’s children, and their observations, cheered him often.
Of friends who commented on drafts of the work, Cedric and Anne Whitman read and listened to strategic sections and were munificent with their learning and love of Homer; Mason and Florence Hammond were hospitable auditors and critics throughout; George Lord made helpful notes on several books. The translator is greatly indebted to other friends whose kindness to him and faith in his work sustained him.
On the part of Anchor Books, Anne Freedgood, William Whitehead, and Carolyn Hart were invariably sympathetic and attentive. The translation could not have been undertaken or carried on without the support of the English and Comparative Literature Departments of Harvard University.