Homeric Morality

Homeric Morality is an attempt to answer two questions: whether or not the Homeric gods are concerned with 'justice' in human society, and what mechanism controls the social behaviour of Homeric man. It shows that the gods distribute good and bad fortune to men not in response to their moral behaviour, bus as required by fate; men, however, believe that the gods are concerned with human morality, and subsequently their behaviour is restrained by their faith in the moral gods as well as by many other forces, social and emotional.
This volume, taken as a whole, serves as a sustained critique of two influential works in the field, The Justice of Zeus by H. Lloyd- Jones and Merit and Responsibility by A.W.H. Adkins.

This volume describes both divine and human behaviour in Homer through exhaustive surveys of relevant terms and episodes. It is a critical response to A.W.H. Adkins' Merit and Responsibility and H. Lloyd- Jones' The Justice of Zeus.

Booknews

A sustained critique of two influential works in the field--The Justice of Zeus by H. Lloyd-Jones and Merit and Responsibility by A.W.H. Adkins. Answering the questions of whether or not the Homeric gods are concerned with "justice" in human society, and of what mechanism controls the behavior of Homeric man, Yamagata shows that the gods distribute good and bad fortune to men not in response to their moral behavior, but as required by fate; men, however, believe that the gods are concerned with human morality, and subsequently their behavior is restrained by their faith in the moral gods as well as by many other forces, social and emotional. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Naoko Yamagata is a British Academy Research Fellow at University College, London. She obtained her Ph.D. in Classics from London University in 1990. She is currently engaged in a comparative study of the Homeric and medieval Japanese epic traditions.