Archive

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Beautiful Bodies or Beautiful Minds: Disability Studies in Homer, with Joel Christensen

We were pleased to welcome Joel Christensen of Brandeis University, Department of Classics for an Open House discussion about Disability in Homer. It took place on Thursday, April 19, at 11:00 a.m. EDT, and was recorded. In preparation, you might like to read these focus passages (PDF handout): Beautiful Bodies or Beautiful Minds: Disability Studies in Homer—Readings Watch the recording on the screen below or on our YouTube channel For… Read more

History

The Theoretical Ship

By the second part of the Bronze Age the Mediterranean was a vibrant place, full of maritime activity, enabling exchange in knowledge and materials. The Greek art of building ships and knowing how to operate them was at the basis of western civilization. The natural drive to look beyond the horizon resulted in cultural growth, wealth, trade and migration.[1] The ancient Greeks explored new coastlines and envisaged to enter into… Read more

Book Club

Book Club | April 2018: The Tears of Achilles

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

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Heroine cult and tragedy, with Richard P. Martin

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

Book Club

Forthcoming Book Club selections | Spring 2018

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