Hour 25 has two important learning opportunities to share with the community. HeroesX begins on January 6th Join the 5th session of HeroesX on edX. The project site opens on January 6th 2016. Participants will engage with the same timeless masterpieces as in the previous versions of the project, but Professor Nagy will provide all new discussion questions for each Hour. And he will continue to respond to your comments… Read more
Classical Inquiries has published a set of videos and texts featuring the work of Gregory Nagy and Olga M. Davidson on myths relating to the “Lives of Homer” and the “Life of Ferdowsi.” These papers and videos were originally part of an international conference held at Baku, 27–28 November 2015. Together, Nagy and Davidson argue that “the traditional ‘biographies’ about these two poets, as transmitted by a vast variety of communities, can… Read more
What better way to celebrate the end of another year and the start of the next with a group singing and dancing together! So this month’s Core Vocab word is khoros [χορός] which Professor Nagy defines as “‘chorus’ = ‘group of singers/dancers’”[1] As usual, I will start with Homeric usage. [590] The renowned one [= the god Hephaistos], the one with the two strong arms, pattern-wove [poikillein] in it [=… Read more
Botticelli, Venus and the Three Graces offering presents to a young girl (1485) Louvre Greek has five words that are commonly translated uniformly by “gift.” A careful examination of their use shows that they do in fact correspond to as many different ways of envisaging a gift—from the purely verbal notion of “giving” to “a contractual prestation [benefit] imposed by the terms of a pact, an alliance, a friendship, or… Read more
I will proclaim to the world the deeds of Gilgamesh. This was the man to whom all things were known; this was the king who knew the countries of the world. He was wise, he saw mysteries and knew secret things, he brought us a tale of the days before the flood. He went on a long journey, was weary, worn-out with labor, returning he rested, he engraved on a… Read more