When we investigate how the law and the courts of Classical Greece worked, the law of ancient Athens provides most of our source material. This overview will therefore focus on Athenian law in the fifth and fourth centuries, BCE.[1] Before that time, disputes were adjudicated by officials called archons. The archons may have heard testimony from parties and witnesses, may have questioned them, and perhaps the parties were allowed to… Read more
We were pleased to welcome back Maria G. Xanthou for an Open House discussion on the Chalcidian peninsula, from periphery to epichoric identity. This event took place on Thursday, September 20 2018 at 11:00 a.m. EDT, and was recorded. Before the event, you might like to read the PDF: XanthouEpichoricOpenHouse20092018Handout You can watch the event on our YouTube channel or in the frame below For further videos please visit the… Read more
This next exploration of Core Vocabulary—taken from terms in H24H[1] and the associated Sourcebook[2] —features ponos [πόνος], glossed as ‘ordeal, labor, pain’. In Homeric Greek, Autenrieth[3] explains further: “labor, toil, esp. of the toil of battle,…frequently implying suffering, grievousness, ‘a grievous thing,’…hence joined with ὀιζύς [oizus “woe, misery”], κήδεα [kēdea “cares, troubles,, sorrows” ], ἀνιη [aniē/aniā, “grief, sorrow, distress, trouble; bane”]” In this first example, we pick up where Achilles… Read more
The subject of the Iliad is the anger of Achilles, not Achilles himself. But what is this anger of his? The Book Club this month will be reading and discussing selections from The Anger of Achilles: Mênis in Greek Epic (available free online at the Center for Hellenic Studies.) We will be reading how Leonard Muellner uses the insights of Albert Lord on epic themes, and looks at such anger not… Read more
We were pleased to welcome Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow, Clare College, Cambridge, and A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture Emeritus, for the first Open House of the Fall 2018 session, to discuss Sparta and its continuing myth. This event took place on Thursday, September 6, at 11 a.m. EDT, and was recorded. Before watching the event you might like to read the PDF handout: 2018-05-29_PaulCartledge_Sparta-T.pdf You can… Read more