W.J. Woodhouse (1866-1937),
The Composition of Homer's Odyssey (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930), p. 7:
For over thirty years two Greek books, the Odyssey of
Homer and the Description of Greece by Pausanias, the one
from the golden springtime, the other from the mellow
autumn of that ancient world, have been my loved companions, at home and on my journeyings.
To read and read
again the Odyssey itself has ever to me seemed more profitable, as it is indubitably more entertaining, and never more
so than now, to one that is ἐπὶ γήραος οὐδῷ, than to read
books written about the Odyssey. And still at each reading
once more is recaptured the fascination, the exhilarating
sense of discovery and adventure with which, nearly half
a century ago, as a self-imposed labour of love, I first spelt
out the magic lines.
Doubtless, one's knowledge must have been enriched by
countless rills from forgotten sources; but the main stream
flows deep and strong and untroubled from a single spring,
which is the poem itself.
Id., p. 8:
If any one, retorting my own avowal, resolves to read the
Odyssey itself rather than to spend time over what is here
said about it, so much the better—provided only that the
Odyssey be read. Should the reading of my book lead others
to the divine poet—well, with that again I should be content,
and more than content. For if my book does that, what other
merit need it claim?