This translation is long overdue, both in the sense that it has taken me a long time to complete it and in the sense that it is a book that I feel deserves a wider audience than the original German version may have found. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to have worked so closely with it.

All translations of passages in ancient Greek are mine unless otherwise stated. I have of course followed the author’s interpretation of these passages. Translations from French and Italian are likewise mine unless otherwise acknowledged. In transliterating Greek words I have used â, ê, and ô to represent ᾱ, η, and ω.

My thanks go to the author and to Greg Nagy, Lenny Muellner, and Albert Henrichs for their support and encouragement. I should also like to thank those who introduced me to German classical scholarship and encouraged me to read in German: Eckart Schütrumpf, Christoph Konrad, and Albert Henrichs.

Seattle, September 2007 {xiii|}