Excerpt from Homer: An Introduction to the Iliad and the Odyssey The purpose of this book is to furnish, in a compact form, a general introduction to the study of Homer. The four chapters into which it is divided deal respectively with four aspects of the subject - (i) The general character of the Homeric poems, and their place in the history of literature (2) their historical value, as illustrating an early period of Hellenic life: (3) their influence in the ancient world, and the criticism bestowed on them in antiquity (4) the modern inquiry into their origin. So far as I am aware, there is no one book, English or foreign, which collects the principal results of modern study in each of these departments. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.