Translating the poet: Alexander Pope's engagement with the Homeric biographical tradition in his translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey

This article explores Alexander Pope’s experience as a translator of the Iliad and the Odyssey, particularly his engagement with Homer as a poet and his biographical tradition. This study focusses on how Homer features in Pope’s correspondence as he works on the translations, how the Greek poet is described in the prefatory essay by Thomas Parnell and Pope’s own notes to the text, and finally how his physical presence materialises in the illustrations within Pope’s translations. This article suggests that by engaging with the biography of Homer Pope explores issues such as poetic authority and divine inspiration, promote his own translations against European competitors, and ultimately establish himself as a translator and as a poet. Throughout the process, Homer appears as a presence that forces Pope constantly to challenge himself, until he feels he can stand a comparison with the greatest poet ever.