Texts

Texts

Pindar, Second Nemean Epinikion

  A translation and notes by Jack Vaughan For Timodemos of Archarnai, Victor in Pankration Much as Homerid singers often begin their weaving of songs with a prelude honoring Zeus, this man, too, for a start has received an installment of a victory-studded career in the sacred contests in the much-celebrated hallowed precinct of Nemean Zeus. It still behooves him, the son of Timonoos, if his life’s time, guided straight according to the ways of his fathers, has been given as an adornment to… Read more

History,  Texts,  Video

Introducing an augmented translation of Thucydides: Book 2

We are pleased to share in the Text Library a revised translation of selections from Book 2 of Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian War that tracks Key terms. The selected part of Book 2—chapters 34–65—includes some important and famous sections, and within these are particular focus passages indicated by highlighting: Pericles’ Funeral Oration The plague in Athens Pericles’ last speech Thucydides’ assessment of Pericles This edition was the result of a community-driven… Read more

Texts

Pindar Nemean 1

Translation and notes by Jack Vaughan Pindar, First Nemean Epinikion For Khromios of Aetna or Syracuse, Victor in Four-Horse Chariot Race Sacred precinct where Alpheus comes to rest and catches breath[1], Ortygia, child of famed Syracuse, bedstead of Artemis, sister isle of Delos, from you my sweet-voiced hymn proceeds to set forth great ainos of storm-footed horses, gifts of Aetnaean Zeus. Nemea spurs on the chariot of Khromios[2] to yoke… Read more

Texts

The Structure of Greek Tragedy: An Overview

There are different terms for different parts of a Greek drama, some of which modern scholars took from Aristotle and other ancient drama critics. The typical structure of an Ancient Greek tragedy is a series of alternating dialogue and choral lyric sections. (There are exceptions, and technical divisions naturally do not explain intellectual and emotional “soft power” aspects of a great Greek tragedy.) The dialogue sections are in typically speechverse,… Read more

Texts,  Topic for Discussion, 

Hermione’s Birth Suddenly Triggered Zeus’s Plan

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