Our author's work is a wild paradise, where, if we cannot see all the beauties so distinctly as in an ordered garden, it is only because the number of them is infinitely greater. And, perhaps, the reason why common critics are inclined to prefer a judicious and methodical genius to a great and fruitful one, is, because they find it easier for themselves to pursue their observations through a uniform and bounded walk of art, than to comprehend the vast and various extent of nature. Whatever praises may be given to works of judgment, there is not even a single beauty in them to which the invention must not contribute: as in the most regular gardens, art can only reduce beauties of nature to more regularity, and such a figure, which the common eye may better take in, and is, therefore, more entertained with. It furnishes art with all her materials, and without it judgment itself can at best but 'steal wisely:' for art is only like a prudent steward that lives on managing the riches of nature. It is the invention that, in different degrees, distinguishes all great geniuses: the utmost stretch of human study, learning, and industry, which masters everything besides, can never attain to this. Nor is it a wonder if he has ever been acknowledged the greatest of poets, who most excelled in that which is the very foundation of poetry. The praise of judgment Virgil has justly contested with him, and others may have their pretensions as to particular excellences but his invention remains yet unrivalled. Shrines dedicated to Homer have been discovered, and it is thought that he was the subject of what is now known as an ancient Greek 'hero cult ', a religious practice dedicated to individuals who were considered to be greater than men but not quite gods.Homer is universally allowed to have had the greatest invention of any writer whatever. Adoration for Homer was so great that in some places he was nearly revered as a god. The Cult of Homer: Homer’s epics were considered the foundational works of ancient Greek literature and culture. However, all of the texts of the Epic Cycle have been lost, with just fragments remaining.

Altogether they formed a narrative of the war, known as the Epic Cycle. It is often suggested that these works were written after the two Homeric epics, and most of them are much shorter than Homer’s masterpieces. Titles included the Cypria, the Aethiopis, and the Little Iliad. The Epic Cycle: Along with the Iliad and the Odyssey, there were several other ancient Greek poems that concentrated on the events of the Trojan War, filling out the events not mentioned in the Homeric epics.

The iliad sparknotes