Homer's great epic describes the many adventures of Odysseus,Greek warrior,as the strives over many years to return to his home island of Ithaca after the Trojan War.Odysseus's quick-witted heroism,his colourful adventures,his endurance,his live for his wife and son have the same power to move and inspire readers today as they did in Archaic Greece,2800years age.

This poem has been translated many times over the years,but Chapman's sinewy,gorgeous rendering(1616)stands in a class of its own.Chapman believed himself inspired by the spirit of Homer himself,and matches the breadty and pwoer of the original with a complex and stunning idiom of his own.John Keats expressed his admiration for the resulting work in the famous sonne.‘On first looking into Chapman’s Homer':‘Much have I travelled in the realms of gold…’

This new Wordsworth edition of Chapaman's Homer contatins accessible annotation,and a detailed introduction that places his masterpiece in the context of his own day,and discusses its influences on later poets.