Archive

Travel

Troy: Myth and Reality, The British Museum | Part 1: The judgment of Paris, signs, and the role of Helen

Meeting with several members of the Kosmos Society in London in February was a wonderful experience. We went together to the amazing exhibition “Troy: Myth and Reality” at the British Museum. The British Museum was packed with fans of Homeric poetry, so we were among people sharing similar enthusiasm. Now we offer some of our highlights. Kosmos Society members ready to enter the exhibition The Troy Exhibition at the British… Read more

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Wives of Returning Veterans in Classical Athenian Drama, with Erika Weiberg

We were excited to welcome Erika Weiberg of Florida State University for an Open House. The title of the discussion is “Wives of Returning Veterans in Classical Athenian Drama”. The discussion took place on March 19 at 11:00 a.m. EDT; it was live-streamed and recorded. In preparation, you might like to read the PDF handout: Weiberg Kosmos Society Handout You can view the event on our YouTube channel. or in… Read more

Topic for Discussion

Dreams | Part 2: Dreams in later Greek texts

In part 1, we looked at dreams as represented in Homeric epic. In part 2, we continue our exploration with some passages from other texts. Starting with tragedy, we learn from Jean Alaux Lectures Tragiques d’Homère that “According to Jacques Jouanna, there are two types of dreams: the vision-dream which offers the sleeper a symbol to decipher … and the visitation–dream where a god or a messenger or a ghost… Read more

Book Club

Book Club | March 2020: Poems of Tyrtaeus and Theognis

For the March Book Club we will be reading poems by Tyrtaeus and Theognis. Tyrtaeus was composing around the middle of the seventh century BCE, in Sparta. The surviving poems and fragments are mainly elegies and war poems, and make reference to heroism and to hoplite warfare.[1] Theognis was an elegiac poet composing in the sixth century BCE in Megara, although many poems attributed to him are later additions. The… Read more

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Homer’s Thebes: Epic Rivalries and the Appropriation of Mythical Pasts, with Joel Christensen

We were excited to welcome Joel Christensen for an Open House. The title of the discussion is “Homer’s Thebes: Epic Rivalries and the Appropriation of Mythical Pasts,” based on his research and collaboration with Elton T. E. Barker. The event took place on Friday, March 6 at 11:00 a.m. EST. It was live-streamed and recorded. In preparation, you might like to read Iliad 4.1–421 and Odyssey 11.225–332, as well as… Read more