ILLUSTRATIONS


READING FROM HOMER (L. Alma Tadema)

PENELOPE (The Vatican, Rome)

TELEMACHUS DEPARTING FROM NESTOR (Henry Howard)

ODYSSEUS AND NAUSICAÄ (Charles Gleyre)

ODYSSEUS AND POLYPHEMUS (J. M. W. Turner)

CIRCE (Sir E. Burne-Jones)

THE RETURN OF ODYSSEUS (L. F. Schützenberger)

ODYSSEUS AND EURYCLEIA (Christian G. Heyne)




INTRODUCTION


The impersonal character of the Homeric poems has left us entirely in
the dark as to the birthplace, the history, and the date, of their
author. So complete is the darkness which surrounds the name of Homer