The Titles (and Subtitles) of Aristotle’s Lost Work on Homer

Abstract

I examine four types of evidence for the titles of the lost work that is the focus of this book: (1) the three most reliable ancient biographies of Aristotle, which contain lists of Aristotle’s works; (2) passages from three other, less reliable, ancient biographies of Aristotle; (3) the only three fragments from the Homeric Problems which refer to a title; (4) the incipit (i.e. opening words) of Poetics 25. Of the two most likely titles (Προβλήματα Ὁμηρικά‎ and Ἀπορήματα Ὁμηρικά‎), I have a preference for the latter. I also discuss the possible explanations for the variation in the number of books attributed to this work (six and ten), and I speculate about the possibility of subtitles (that is, separate titles for each of its six or ten books).