In this celebratory book, we explore the deep roots of the classicist from Ireland before he conquers audiences with his comedies and readers with The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde is best known for his humour, bright wit and grandeur. In this special bilingual volume we meet him as a student and antiquarian. In Women of Homer (1876) he paints his own colourful portraits of Odyssey’s and Iliad’s female characters, still young at the time, admiring Nausicaa and praising Helen. In Hellenism (1877) his worship of beauty and the aesthete’s sensual taste for charm seem to yield while attempting to express the reflection of Imperialist Britain through ancient Athens and Sparta. He wrote these two essays during his holidays. Previously, he had travelled to Greece, and had dressed as a Philhellene fighter of the Greek War of Independence, in Katakolon. What did the ancient Greek civilisation mean to him, what did he admire from that world and what did he treasure from his studies at Oxford? The rare juvenilia of a very promising youth that matured into a renowned artist, translated for the first time into Greek by Ilias Kolokouris.