The characteristics of Homer's poetry, as the culmination of ballad poetry and the grand model of the minstrel epos, may be expressed in a very few words. In the first place, the materials are essentially national, and if not strictly historical in every detail of decoration, grow, like all ballad poetry. out of the real life of the people, and rest at least upon an honest historical substratum. In this view, the Iliad is as valuable for the earliest history of the Hellenic race as Herodotus and Thueydides are fo'r the later periods. But it is not for the Greeks alone that Homer possesses an important historical value ; he is for all ages an important record of the earliest stages of human society, second only to the books of Moses and perhaps s.nne of the very oldest of the Vedas. The first germs of almost all other arts and sciences afterwards cultivated by the Greeks and Romans are to he found in Homer. In this view, he was to the Greeks themselves an encyclopaedia of their national culture; and, as embodying the grand features of their polytheistic faith, he is also constantly quoted by their great writers with all the deference clue to a Bible.
The poems of Homer, as a great human inheritance, have naturally been incorpo rated. by translation, into all the languages of Europe. In Italian, the translations of Cesarotti and Monti; in French, that of Montbel; in German, that of Voss, are the most famous. In England we have tried this. great problem in the most various styles,
and have produced specimens of brilliant success in certain partial aspects. The whole excellences of Homer have not yet been exhibited in any one of the notable English translations, nor is such a combination perhaps possible. The grand flow, rapid march, and `sonorons fullness of the original are well given by Pope; the rough dramatic vigor of individual phrases and passages are best rendered by Chapman; while the unaffected truthfulness and easy, unpretending grace which so prominently mark the great Smyrnean minstrel appear most clearly in Cowper. Of the recent attempts which have been made, and are making, to present Homer in some new aspect to English readers, it is premature to speak. We may mention the translations of Newman (1856), Worsley (1801-65), Dean Alford (1861), Simcox (1865), lord Derby (1865), John Stuart Blackie (1866), Herschel (186G), Mcrivale (1809), and W. C. Bryant (1870-71).
Those who wish to enter more minutely into the various questions connected with Homer and the Homeric poems may consult the works on Greek literature by col. Mitre and K. 0. Muller; the special work on Homer by Mr. Gladstone; the article "Homer" in Dr. Smith's Dictionary of' Ancient Biography; and the article •Z' Homer" in the Encyclopadht Britannica.