The Iliad of Homer, translated by Alexander Pope (Penguin, £16 in UK)

Dr Johnson considered Pope's version of the Iliad the greatest poetry translation of all time. Against this stands the verdict of a leading classical scholar of the era: "It is a pretty poem, Mr Pope, but you must not call it Homer." It was one of the great enterprises of his life, and he supplied it with elaborate notes including relevant passages from Horace, Virgil, etc., which he gives in both the Latin and in his own versions. The Iliad is an austere, warlike, all male epic by its very nature, as well as being very long, and Pope's polished, epigrammatic, rhyming couplets are far removed from Homer's broad and sonorous - dactylic hexameters. Perhaps ultimately the translation is best read as Pope rather than Homer.