Archive

Visiting Scholars

Oral Poetics: The Epic Cycle, and the Metaphor of the Chariot Wheel

In this video clip, Professor Gregory Nagy discusses the epic cycle, as a body of oral poetry, and helps us to understand how the ancient Greeks viewed their tradition of composition in performance through the metaphor of the chariot wheel, the κύκλος [kuklos, ‘circle, cycle, chariot wheel’]. You can watch on our YouTube channel, or in the frame below References: Albert B. Lord: Singer of Tales Gregory Nagy: Homeric Questions… Read more

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Homeric poetry, multitextuality, and jazz, with Graeme Bird

We were pleased to welcome Professor Graeme D. Bird (Gordon College) for a special Open House Discussion. Professor Bird, who is both a classicist and jazz musician, joined members of the community for a discussion about Homeric poetry, multitextuality, and jazz. For a general introduction to Bird and his work, read “Homeric Variations: Interview with Classicist and Jazz Musician Graeme Bird”. You can watch on our YouTube channel, or in… Read more

Word Study

Hesiodic Advice on Oinops

~ A guest post by Sarah Scott and the Oinops Study Group ~ In our initial discussions we concentrated on the Homeric epics and identified some of the themes that appear in our focus passages. When we viewed together the main subjects surrounding the words appearing with oinops, pontos, ‘sea’, and bous, ‘ox’, we started to see a connection with seasonality (see ‘Oinops and Oxen’), so we decided to look in… Read more

Announcements

Enroll in The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours with Gregory Nagy on edX

Explore what it means to be human today by studying what it meant to be a hero in ancient Greek times Registration is now open for the latest session of The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, a unique MOOC that introduces participants to the literature and heroes of ancient Greece via the content from one of Harvard’s longest running courses. The first of five modules on The Ancient Greek Hero, “Epic… Read more

Word Study

An Exploration of Homeric Multitextuality

~ A guest post by Jenna Cole ~ While thinking about oinops in the course of our word study, one passage stood out as unusual because oinops appears in one published edition of the Greek Iliad text but not in another. For Scroll I, line 350, Chicago Homer, which is based on the 1902 Oxford edition by D.B. Munro, gives this: θῖν’ ἔφ’ ἁλὸς πολιῆς, ὁρόων ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον: But… Read more