This book, consisting of two publications by the poet and translator George Chapman was the earliest complete English translation of the works of Homer. The book consists of Chapman's translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey (published c. 1616, reprinted c. 1634) and of the Batrachomyomachia and Epigrams (published c. 1624). The Epigrams and Batrachomyomachia are no longer attributed to Homer, but Chapman's translation still remains one of the earliest complete English translations of these works. The original Greek of both the Iliad and the Odyssey was written in didactic hexameter, a style replicated in Virgil's Aeneid. However, the English of Chapman is written in iambic pentameter and heptameter, popular styles of the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries. In order to follow this pattern, Chapman often embellished certain passages of the text in order to clarify meanings, and to add moral lessons within his translation.
Both works are undated, but the translations of the Iliad and Odyssey can be identified as belonging to the 1616 edition. This is due to the fact that the word "HOMERS" the running title on the recto of each leaf throughout the Iliad is written without the apostrophe added in the later reprint. The translation of the Odyssey however, includes an engraved title page which is only found in the 1634 edition. It is likely that this was inserted when the book was re-bound, as the print from the first page of text can be seen on the verso of the blank facing the additional title page.