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
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
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
We were excited to welcome back Maria G. Xanthou for an Open House. The full title of the discussion is “The Muse(s)’s “white noise”, sympotic calm, and the taste of sound: the background of sound-scape and the gustatory acoustics of Pindar’s epinician odes.” The event took place on Thursday, February 20 at 11:00 a.m. EST. It was live-streamed and recorded. In preparation, you might like to read this handout (PDF)… Read more
Should anyone here not know the art of love, read this, and learn by reading how to love. By art the boat’s set gliding, with oar and sail, by art the chariot’s swift: love’s ruled by art. Inspired by Valentine’s Day, our selection this month is The Art of Love, or Ars Amatoria, by the Roman poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso). As always, you can read any translation you like.… Read more