As with many things in life, so with books, ends and beginnings come strangely close. The completion of what started as a research project four years ago makes me think of all those who have helped me bring this book to its present form. Different people have offered different kinds of assistance, but they are all to be dearly thanked for having graciously given so much of their time, effort, and patience. It is, therefore, my pleasure to acknowledge my debt to them.

Elizabeth Minchin, Alex Purves, Antonios Rengakos, Michael Squire, the anonymous referee, and the entire CHS team have read parts or the whole of my manuscript at various stages. They have all made instructive comments, helped clarify my thinking on a number of issues, and suggested further secondary literature on certain topics treated in my book. Patrick Finglass was so kind so as to polish my English; he read the entire manuscript from beginning to end with his usual precision and keen eye for detail. David Weeks also helped me get rid of various mistakes and made my English more idiomatic. Thanks are also due to Jenny Strauss Clay, who made available to me a penultimate draft of her book Homer’s Trojan Theater: Space, Vision, and Memory in the Iliad (Cambridge, 2011), when I was still working on my manuscript.

I would also like to express my gratitude to Pietro Pucci and Greg Nagy, both for the ongoing influence that their scholarship continues to exercise on my view of many things Homeric and for being always there for me in so many different ways.

On a personal note, space has made me reconsider the human absence and presence that so influence one’s life. My twin brother’s emigration to France and the coming birth of my second daughter are constant reminders of spaces left void and then filled, of memories and love mixed so painfully and healingly in our brief and, perhaps, trivial life stories.