“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
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
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
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
In the forum we have previously discussed the ancient Greek Moirai in comparison with the Nordic Norns, so for this month’s Core Vocab I thought it might be interesting to look at the word moira (plural moirai), defined in the Core Vocab as ‘portion; portion of meat divided at a sacrifice; lot in life, fate, destiny.’[1] Just that range of meanings in the definition is intriguing. I am curious to… Read more