years in two separate books, form the poems known as the Iliad and
Odyssey.

Homer's poetry is what is called epic poetry, that is, it tells about
heroes and heroic actions. The Iliad and Odyssey are the first and
greatest of epic poems. In all ages since Homer's time, scholars have
agreed in declaring them to be the finest poetic productions of human
genius. No nation in the world has ever produced poems so beautiful or
so perfect. They have been read and admired by learned men for more than
2000 years. They have been translated into the languages of all
civilized countries. In this book we make many quotations from the fine
translation of the Iliad by our American poet, William Cullen Bryant. We
quote also from the well-known translation by the English poet,
Alexander Pope.

The ancients had a very great admiration for the poetry of Homer. We are
told that every educated Greek could repeat from memory any passage in
the Iliad or Odyssey. Alexander the Great was so fond of Homer's poems
that he always had them under his pillow while he slept. He kept the
Iliad in a richly ornamented casket, saying that "the most perfect work
of human genius ought to be preserved in a box the most valuable and
precious in the world."

So great was the veneration the Greeks had for Homer, that they erected
temples and altars to him, and worshiped him as a god. They held
festivals in his honor, and made medals bearing the figure of the poet
sitting on a throne and holding in his hands the Iliad and Odyssey. One
of the kings of Eʹgypt built in that country a magnificent temple, in
which was set up a statue of Homer, surrounded with a beautiful
representation of the seven cities that contended for the honor of being