Archive

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Making Connections: Exploring Beowulf, with Graeme Bird

We were pleased to welcome Graeme Bird (Gordon College) who joined us for a discussion exploring the Old English poem Beowulf, which is also our next Book Club selection. Handouts: Handout of focus passages that were featured in the discussion (updated with line numbers for those using different editions): Selection of focus passages for Beowulf-with line numbers (PDF) Handout of the first 11 lines in the original Old English: Beowulf… Read more

Book Club

Book Club | February: Beowulf

“The bold man, proud prince of the Weders, answered him, spoke a word in reply, stern under his helmet: ‘We are Hygelac’s table-companions; Beowulf is my name. I wish to tell my errand to the son of Healfdene, the famous prince, thy lord, if he will grant that we may greet him who is so gracious.’ Wulfgar spoke—he was a man of the Wendels; his courage, his bravery and his… Read more

Topic for Discussion

An Encounter to Remember

For centuries of European art, it was one of the most frequently portrayed moments from classical antiquity.  Wikimedia Commons includes more than fifty artistic renderings of an apocryphal meeting of the young Alexander of Macedonia (later to be known as “the Great”) and the much older Diogenes of Sinope (later to be known as “the Cynic”). It is hard to imagine a more unlikely pair.  Alexander was the brash young… Read more

Announcements,  Book Club

Upcoming Book Club Selections: Spring 2016

We are excited to share the themes for the upcoming Hour 25 Book Club selections. Look out for further announcements with details of the texts, and the related forum threads, nearer the time! Tuesday March 29: Herodotus Tuesday April 26: Aesop Tuesday May 31: Celtic mythology There will also be CHS Open House discussions to tie in with these themes. Since many of you were unable to attend the January… Read more

Gallery

Gallery: Delphi

This gallery will take you to Delphi in Greece. Plutarch, who was a priest of Apollo in Delphi for several years, wrote a book about the oracles. Here are two passages from his book. Plutarch describes “the shrine of Earth” τὸ τῆς Γῆς ἱερὸν. Accordingly we went round and seated ourselves upon the southern steps of the temple, looking towards the shrine of Earth and the stream of water, with the result that Boethus… Read more