Literature

Chapman's Homeric Hymns and Other Homerica

    Translated by
  • George Chapman
    Introduction by
  • Stephen Scully

Paperback

Price:
$37.00/拢30.00
ISBN:
Published:
May 4, 2008
Copyright:
2008
Pages:
240
Size:
5.5 x 8.5 in.
Illus:
1 halftone.

George Chapman’s translations of Homer—immortalized by Keats’s sonnet— are the most famous in the English language. Swinburne praised their 鈥渞omantic and sometimes barbaric grandeur,鈥� their 鈥渇reshness, strength, and inextinguishable fire.鈥� And the great critic George Saintsbury wrote, 鈥淔or more than two centuries they were the resort of all who, unable to read Greek, wished to know what the Greek was. Chapman is far nearer Homer than any modern translator in any modern language.鈥�


This volume presents the original text of Chapman’s translation of the Homeric hymns. The hymns, believed to have been written not by Homer himself but by followers who emulated his style, are poems written to the gods and goddesses of the ancient Greek pantheon. The collection, originally titled by Chapman 鈥淭he Crowne of all Homers Workes,鈥� also includes epigrams and poems attributed to Homer and known as 鈥淭he Lesser Homerica,鈥� as well as his famous 鈥淭he Battle of Frogs and Mice.鈥�