This book highlights the strong roots of Oscar Wilde as a classical philologist from Ireland, even before he captivated audiences with his comedies and readers with the scandalous Picture of Dorian Gray.

He is better known to all of us for his humor, witty repartee, and provocativeness. In this unique, bilingual volume, we encounter the young student and antiquarian Wilde. In The Women of Homer (1876), we see him paint with his own colors the female figures of the Odyssey and the Iliad, admiring Nausicaa and praising Helen.

In Hellenism (1877), his adoration for beauty and the aestheticism of aestheticists seem to give way to his effort to examine the reflection of Imperial Britain through ancient Athens and Sparta. Wilde wrote both essays during his holiday period. He had previously traveled to Greece and had dressed as a philhellenic fighter of '21.

But what did the ancient Greek culture mean to him, what exactly did he admire in that world, and what did he retain from his relevant studies at Oxford? The rare beginnings of an emerging artist.