Allan Massie

Over the Wine-Dark Sea

The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters

By

William Collins 352pp £25 order from our bookshop

There is a simple answer to the question understood by the subtitle of this book. Homer matters because he has mattered to people for some three thousand years or even longer. He matters because he is the father of European literature. Homer, Adam Nicolson writes, ‘is the foundation of truth and beauty … Homer is alive in anyone who is prepared to attend. Homerity is humanity.’

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