We were pleased to welcome Kevin McGrath for an Open House discussion about Indo-European Epic Poetry. In preparation, you might like to read and think carefully about Odyssey 8.487–491.
Demodokos, I admire and pointedly praise you, more than any other human. 488 Either the Muse, child of Zeus, taught you, or Apollo. 489 All too well, in accord with its kosmos, do you sing the fate of the Achaeans [490] —all the things the Achaeans did and all the things that were done to them, and they suffered for it— 491 you sing it as if you yourself had been present or had heard it from someone else.
You can watch in the frame below, or on our YouTube channel.
Selected works mentioned in this discussion:
- The work of Georges Dumézil
- Douglas Frame Hippota Nestor
- Kevin McGrath Heroic Kṛṣṇa: Friendship in Epic Mahābhārata
- Heroic Kṛṣṇa: Portrait of a Charioteer (essay)
- Gregory Nagy Homeric Responses
- Calvert Watkins How to Kill a Dragon
For further videos please visit the Watch page.
If you would like the opportunity to study with Kevin McGrath you can choose to register as a student in CLAS E-116 “The Ancient Greek Hero” with the Harvard Extension School to earn college or graduate credit.
Kevin McGrath
Kevin McGrath was born in southern China in 1951 and was educated in England and Scotland; he has lived and worked in France, Greece, and India. Presently he is an associate of the Department of South Asian Studies and poet in residence at Lowell House, Harvard University. Publications include Fame (1995), Lioness (1998), The Sanskrit Hero (2004), Flyer (2005), Comedia (2008), Stri (2009), Jaya (2011), Supernature (2012), Eroica, and Heroic Krsna (2013), In the Kacch, and Windward (2015), Arjuna Pandava, and Eros (2016), Raja Yudhisthira, and Bhisma Devavrata (2018). McGrath lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his family.