"I have always from my earliest youth had an awe and love of Homer which even now makes the words falter on my lips, for he seems to be the great captain and teacher of the whole of that noble tragic company..." -Plato

"All that man has thought or said about the glory and horror of the battlefield, the internal struggle of the soldier, and the inescapable nature of our mortality is contained within the pages of Homer's epic. It is here that western literature, here that the big questions begin to be asked, here that beauty meets truth." -From Markos's Introduction

In the middle of the great Trojan War, the great warrior Achilles is slighted and leaves the battle to sit by his ships until his honor is restored, no matter how high the casualties mount. In his great poem, Homer shows the brutality of war, the brevity of life, the emptiness of honor, and the unspeakable grief that unites even the most hardened of foes. No pagan classic expresses greater beauty or depth, perhaps because it captures so poignantly a world hungry for the Gospel.

This Canon Classic, translated into verse by the talented poet William Cullen Bryant, presents the moving sadness of the epic as clearly as it did for the Greeks three thousand years ago. The Canon Classics series presents the most definitive works of Western literature in a colorful, well-crafted, and affordable way. Unlike many other thrift editions, our classics are printed on thicker text stock and feature individualized designs that prioritize readability by means of proper margins, leading, characters per line, font, trim size, etc. Each book's materials and layout combine to make the classics a simple and striking addition to classrooms and homes, ideal for introducing the best of literary culture and human experience to the next generation.

This Worldview Edition features an introduction divided into sections on The World Around, About the Author, What Other Notables Said, Setting, Characters, & Plot Summary, Worldview Analysis, and 21 Discussion Questions & Answers.