Allan Massie
Over the Wine-Dark Sea
The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters
By Adam Nicolson
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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