space and pure air have made the _Odyssey_ the companion of many a
veteran reader in whom the Greek spirit cannot die.

* * * * *

Of the impression which Homer has made upon the mind of Europe it
would be difficult to give an estimate. The Greeks themselves early
came to regard his text with a sort of veneration; it was learned by
heart and quoted to spellbound audiences in the cities and at the
great national meetings at Olympia. Every Greek boy was expected to
know some portion at least by heart; Plato evidently loved Homer and
when he was obliged to point out that the system of morality which he
stood for was antiquated and needed revision, apologised for the
criticism he could not avoid. It is sometimes said that Homer was the
Bible of the Greeks; while this statement is probably inaccurate--for
no theological system was built on him nor did he claim any divine
revelation--yet it is certain that authors of all ages searched the
text for all kinds of purposes, antiquarian, ethical, social, as well
as religious. This careful study of Homer culminated in the learned
and accurate work of the great Alexandrian school of Zenodotus and
Aristarchus.

In Roman times Homer never failed to inspire lesser writers; Ennius is
said to have translated the _Odyssey_, while Virgil's _Aeneid_ is
clearly a child of the Greek Homeric tradition. In the Middle Ages the
Trojan legend was one of the four great cycles which were treated over
and over again in the Chansons. Even drama was glad to borrow the
great characters of the _Iliad_, as Shakespeare did in _Troilus and
Cressida_. In England a number of famous translations has witnessed to
the undying appeal of the first of the Greek masters. Chapman