Famously praised by John Keats for speaking loud and bold, Chapmans Homer brought Greek poetry and civilization to life for centuries of readers. Many have praised its rough energy and creativity, the crashing power of the verses, its grim depiction of life and death in war. The companion to Gordon Kendals edition of Chapmans Odyssey, this edition of his Iliad features a newly edited version of the 1611 printing (including all the translators combative notes and commentary) in modern spelling and punctuation. The introduction, Looking into Chapmans Homer, explores the complicated history of revision behind the text, the intermediate Latin sources, and, most important, Chapmans early modern reception of the Iliad, that is, the later political, cultural, social, literary, moral, and theological ideas that shape his reading of the ancient Greek text. The edition provides also full textual collations, lexical and explanatory notes, a glossary, bibliography, an appendix on Chapmans contributions to the English language, and index. Like his great contemporary and rival, William Shakespeare, Chapman was a dramatist and one of the great wordsmiths of the Renaissance, a creator of the language that we speak and write today as Modern English. Chapmans Iliad deploys the resources of this developing English language for stunning poetic effects; this raw and powerful version of Homers inspired song stands also as a masterpiece of English literature.
