We know more about the textual history of the Iliad from c. 250 B.C. than of any other ancient work save the New Testament; yet the origin of our text and the nature of Alexandrian scholarship are still obscure and hotly disputed topics. From the late sixth century B.C. the poem was the constant staple of Greek elementary education; this ensured its transmission, but also encouraged textual variation. The frequency and importance of memorized rhapsodic performances exacerbated this tendency; in its early stages the transmission was at least partly oral, whatever we conclude about how and when the poem was first written down. When we first encounter quotations (often from memory) in fourth-century Athenian authors, and scraps of manuscripts from third-century Egypt, the texts are often longer than ours and vary widely in wording. A medley of divergent MSS reached the Museum at Alexandria, where scholars worked to put them in order. Since we can follow the history of the text with confidence only from this point, we will begin there.

The Roman and Byzantine vulgate

Fragments of over 600 MSS and myriads of quotations, not to mention the scholia and their lemmata, give us a clear view of the text which prevailed from about 150 B.C. to about A.D. 600. This ‘ancient vulgate’ is close to that found in the 188 medieval codices of c. 900–1550. Generally these preserve the text well; their variant readings and extra verses often go back to antiquity. But, although more carefully copied than most of the papyri, not all Byzantine MSS are of equal value.