Acknowledging that Homer is a poet, not a staff instructor, Albracht works carefully through the Homeric text to produce a persuasive picture of the workings of battle in the "Iliad", in two parts: Part 1 the council of war, marshalling of the troops, the use of chariots, the advance into battle, the standing fight, the massed attack and defence, retreat, flight and pursuit; in Part 2 protection in the field, attack and defence of a fortified camp and the siege and defence of a fortified city. Throughout he offers the reader explanations of the details of the battle narrative.
Author Biography
Dr Albracht was one of the scholars who worked on Ebeling's Homeric Lexicon (successive editions from 1871). He published the first part of Kampf und Kampfschilderung bei Homer in 1886 when he was teaching at the prestigious Schulpforte in eastern Germany, the second in 1895 when he was headmaster of the nearby cathedral grammar school at Naumburg an der Saale.
