Louise Marie-Jeanne Hersent: Daphnis et Chloe 19th century For the young and innocent Daphnis and Chloe, the first stirrings of love and desire are uncomfortable experiences: Hearing the name of Eros for the first time soothed the pain in their souls [psūkhē]. At night, they returned to the folds and began comparing their own experiences with what they had heard from Philetas. “Those in love [erân] are in pain [algeîn].… Read more
We are delighted to welcome Professor Mary Bachvarova, Director of the First Year Experience, Lindsay and Corinne Stewart Professor in the Humanities, Classical Studies, Willamette University, to join members of the Kosmos Society for an Open House discussion titled “Lesbian Prayer : Tradition and Innovation in Sappho.” In this talk Prof. Bachvarova will use Homeric and Near Eastern prayer to illustrate how Sappho innovates on her inherited Lesbian tradition of… Read more
And if one were to tell of the wintry-cold [kheimōn], past all enduring, when Ida’s snow [khiōn] slew the birds; [565] or of the heat, when upon his waveless noonday couch, windless the sea [pontos] sank to sleep—but why should we bewail all this? Aeschylus Agamemnon 563–567, adapted from Sourcebook[1] Many areas in the northern hemisphere are currently experiencing heavy snow and freezing temperatures. So we are sharing some passages… Read more
The Punic wars were a series of conflicts encompassing 43 years of war over more than a century, from 265 BCE to 146 BCE. They led to the Roman Republic controlling much of the Mediterranean world, to the ruin of a great North African civilization, and to many modern people speaking a Latin-based or Latin-influenced language. They occurred about 120 years before the Empire was established under Augustus Caesar in… Read more
Three great battles—Mantinea (418 BCE), Leuctra (371 BCE), and Gaugamela (331 BCE)—demonstrate the development of Greek and Macedonian warfare from the simple hoplite phalanx employed by Greek farmers defending their fields, into the powerful, tactically flexible army which allowed Alexander the Great to conquer the Persian Empire. Arising at some point toward the end of the Dark Ages (approximately 800 BCE to 600 BCE), the phalanx of farmers armed with… Read more
To say my mother was “a force of nature” is an understatement! As Hilda Doolittle wrote, she [Helen] is “the admitted first cause of all time and all history.” She was, is, and will always be “the destroyer of worlds,” well at least the world before my birth. I can’t begin to tell you how inhumanly beautiful she was. The effect the very sight of her had on men and… Read more
In this section we will consider the ships that are described as megakētēs [μεγακήτης], usually translated as huge, hollow, and gaping. The word is made up of two parts, mega [μέγα-, “great”], and an adjective form of kētos [κῆτος, “any sea-monster”]. A related word is kētōeis [κητώεις], which means “full of hollows”. In a ship’s geometry the epithet describes the threatening form of the forefoot [steira] of the ancient Greek… Read more
Beauty: a concept of the mind that is intangible, culturally influenced, and fluid. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, say many. The realm of beauty is as old as humanity. The topic canvasses from philosophy to religion from natural to man-made. This is a huge topic, from which I will focus on the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey, and explore how people in antiquity thought about beauty. I have… Read more
Day 1: Arrival We arrive at our hotel which is in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, conveniently situated for the Pyramids. Day 2: Giza Early morning wake-up call, the first one of so many more to come! A small drive by coach to the Pyramids of Giza, their silhouettes looming on the horizon from afar: The largest of the three, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, is the only survivor… Read more
We are pleased to revisit this segment in the series on reading Homeric epic in ancient Greek. In each installment we read, translate, and discuss a small passage in the original Greek in the most accessible way. If you’ve ever dreamed of reading Homer in the original, here is your chance to do so with teachers who have spent a lifetime thinking about this poetry. With their guidance even new… Read more
Text Library
Ancient Greek
Open House
