In an epic text, how were poets able to represent emotion? How can we understand today their way of speaking? Did Achilles “copy” the behavior of warriors from those distant times? Or might it be the reverse: did the epic influence certain real behaviors? Our Book Club selection for April is taken from Hélène Monsacré: The Tears of Achilles, available online at CHS. This book, originally published in French as… Read more
We are pleased to welcome Professor Richard P Martin, Anthony and Isabelle Raubitschek Professor in Classics at Stanford University, for an Open House discussion about heroine cult and tragedy, with special reference to the Medea of Euripides. You can find the play at the Kosmos Society Text Library, here. You can download the handout of the slides with readings as a PDF: MEDEA – Richard P Martin You can watch… Read more
Thanks to all who have participated in the forum and via hangouts in the Kosmos Society Book Club discussions so far this year. You can still post in the forums if you missed the live sessions, have anything further to add, or if you have read additional parts of the selected works. Here is a foretaste of what is to come during Spring 2018 at the Book Club, in which… Read more
Aeacus [Aiakos] while he reigned in Aegina was renowned in all Greece for his justice and piety, and was frequently called upon to settle disputes not only among men, but even among the gods themselves.[1] Whether Aiakos actually settled disputes among the gods themselves is supported by Pindar when referring to the nymph Aegina who “…bore Aeacus [Aiakos], the dearest of all men on earth to the loud-thundering father. Aeacus… Read more
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