荷马史诗是古希腊文学中最早的一部史诗，也是最受欢迎、最具影响力的文学著作。它是欧洲叙事诗的经典范例，内容丰富多采，故事情节和人物形象为后世欧洲的诸多作家提供了丰富的素材。相传由古希腊盲诗人荷马创作的两部长篇史诗《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》的统称。关于荷马所生的年代，出生地和是否确有其人都存在争议。比较普遍的看法认为他可能生于公元前9、8世纪之间的小亚细亚〔安那托利亚〕海边的希腊殖民地。有希腊人的圣经之誉，柏拉图曾说过，精通荷马史诗就精通了一切

两部史诗都分成24卷，《伊利亚特》共有15693行，《奥德赛》共有12110行。这两部史诗最初可能只是基于古代传说的口头文学，靠着乐师的背诵流传。荷马如果确有其人，应该是将两部史诗整理定型的作者。不过事实上，荷马史诗是希腊民间几百年来口头相传的神话传话和英雄故事的精粹。

The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three anonymous Ancient Greek hymns celebrating individual gods. The hymns are "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter—dactylic hexameter—as the Iliad and Odyssey, use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect. They were uncritically attributed to Homer himself in Antiquity—from the earliest written reference to them, Thucydides (iii.104)—and the label has stuck. "The whole collection, as a collection, is Homeric in the only useful sense that can be put upon the word;" A. W. Verrall noted in 1894, "that is to say, it has come down labeled as 'Homer' from the earliest times of Greek book-literature."