Even by the look of him it was plain that he was a son of Zeus; for his body measured four cubits, and he flashed a gleam of fire from his eyes; and he did not miss, neither with the bow nor with the javelin.[1] Apollodorus, among others, provides a number of stories about Hēraklēs in The Library (Book 2, chapters 4 and 5), and such stories provided inspiration for… Read more
Heracles’ tenth labor Figure 1: Hēraklēs sails across the sea in the cup-boat of the sun-god Helios. The hero wears a lion-skin cape and holds a club and bow in his hands.[1] During his numerous and formidable adventures Hēraklēs had to face the sea and to brave storms. In this post we are exploring some of Hēraklēs’ maritime journeys. He assembled large fleets for distant expeditions. While on one of… Read more
Members of the Spring Break trip 2019 Gregory Nagy will again be leading the Spring Break Trip in Greece for Students and Alumni of Harvard University. There may still be waiting-list places available for the next trip, March 13–March 21, 2020. For further details, please see the Harvard Alumni website, here. Whether or not you are able to attend yourself, you might like to read about the experiences of one… Read more
We were pleased to welcome Caroline Stark of Howard University for an Open House. The title of the discussion was: The Reception of Greek in Renaissance Italy. The session was live-streamed and recorded. The event took place on Thursday, December 5 at 11:00 a.m. EST. To get ready for the event, you might like to read: Petrarch’s letter to Homer: Text on Project Gutenberg Aristophanes’ speech, from Plato Symposium, 189–193: Text… Read more
There will be no Book Club in December, due to the holiday season, but we will resume in the new year when we will be reading ancient Greek and Roman texts with a focus on poetry. Here is a preview what is coming up: look out for announcements at the beginning of January, February, and March with details of the selections, links to free online versions, and the dates for… Read more