This is the third volume in the major six-volume Commentary on Homer's Iliad prepared under the General Editorship of Professor G.S. Kirk. It opens with two introductory chapters: the first on Homeric diction (on which emphasis is maintained throughout the Commentary); the second on the contributions that comparative studies have made to seeing the Homeric epics in sharper perspective. In the commentary Dr Hainsworth confronts in an intentionally even-handed manner the serious problems posed by the ninth, tenth and twelfth books of The Iliad, seeking by means of a succinct discussion and a brief bibliography of recent contributions to furnish the user with a point of entry into the often voluminous scholarship devoted to these questions. The Greek text is not included.