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Ancient Greek language,  Reading Homer

Reading Homer aloud: pronunciation, rhythm, enjambments

In this video, Keith Stone asks Gregory Nagy, Leonard Muellner, and Douglas Frame about reading Homeric poetry aloud. Topics include: pronunciation and its changes through time; pausing at enjambments; mastering the rhythm by memorizing passages; fixed metrical patterns; rhythm built into the language; predictability of ends of hexameter lines. Examples taken from:[1] Odyssey 1.187–193 (enjambments): ξεῖνοι δʼ ἀλλήλων πατρώιοι εὐχόμεθʼ εἶναι ἐξ ἀρχῆς, εἴ πέρ τε γέροντʼ εἴρηαι ἐπελθὼν Λαέρτην… Read more

Announcements

Annual Round-up | 2018

Welcome to this round-up of highlights from the content, community, and conversation at Kosmos Society over the past year. This year’s posts, designed to lead to further discussion in the forums, included some written by individual members, and others written collectively by groups. They included posts on subjects as diverse as ships, warfare, law, hair, rhapsodes, servitude, Aegina, Aiakos…. Here is a selection: Aegina and its enmity with Athens The… Read more

Reading Homer

Homeric Greek | Odyssey 1.187–193: Rattling around in enjambments

We are pleased to share this segment in the series on reading Homeric epic in ancient Greek. In each installment we read, translate, and discuss a small passage in the original Greek in the most accessible way. If you’ve ever dreamed of reading Homer in the original, here is your chance to do so with teachers who have spent a lifetime thinking about this poetry. With their guidance even new… Read more

Word Study

Core Vocab: sōphrōn, sōphrosunē

This time the Core Vocab word—taken from terms in H24H[1] and the associated Sourcebook[2] —is sōphrōn [σώφρων] ‘moderate, balanced, with equilibrium’; sōphrosunē [σωφροσύνη] ‘being sōphrōn’. In H24H, Gregory Nagy introduces the word as a metaphor describing the pilot of a ship in the Homeric Hymn (7) to Dionysus. Literally, this word is a compound adjective consisting of the elements sō- and -phrōn, meaning ‘the one whose thinking [phrēn] is safe’,… Read more

Visiting Scholars

Open House | The Legacy of Minos, with Gloria F. Pinney

We were pleased to welcome Gloria F. Pinney, Professor Emerita of Classical Archaeology and Art at Harvard University, for a discussion on ‘The Legacy of Minos’. The event was at 11 a.m. EST on Thursday, December 13, and was recorded. Before the event you might like to read the focus passages in this PDF handout: Kosmos Handout – Legacy of Minos – Gloria F Pinney You can watch the event… Read more