In their Introduction translators Adam J. Goldwyn and Dimitra Kokkini explain that Allegories of the Iliad was apparently conceived of to help introduce Bertha von Sulzbach (empress Eirene), the Bavarian bride of Manuel Komnenos (Byzantine emperor Manuel I), to the culture and language and most important literary works of her new world.
While Homeric exegesis was fairly widespread at this time, […] the position of the text and this reading, historically, — distant from the original Greek context, but also almost a thousand years removed from the contemporary world — makes for an unusual, and other, middle ground to how Homer is generally seen.
Michael Orthofer
The Complete Review
