Seven warriors, fierce regiment-commanders, slaughtered a bull over a black shield, and then touching the bulls gore with their hands they swore an oath by Arēs, by Enyo, and by Rout who delights in blood, that either they will level the city [polis] and sack the Kadmeians’ town [astu] by force [biā], or will in death smear this soil with their blood. This month’s Book Club selection is the Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus.… Read more
Hold it right there. Tell me this, Ion—respond to what I ask without concealment. When you say well the epic verses and induce a feeling of bedazzlement [ekplēxis] for the spectators [theōmenoi] —as you sing of Odysseus leaping onto the threshold and revealing himself to the suitors and pouring out the arrows at his feet, or of Achilles rushing at Hector, or something connected to the pitiful things about Andromache… 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
Hereupon Jason snatched the golden fleece from the oak, at the maiden bidding; and she, standing firm, smeared with the charm the monster’s head, till Jason himself bade her turn back towards their ship, and she left the grove of Ares, dusky with shade. And as a maiden catches on her finely wrought robe the gleam of the moon at the full, as it rises above her high-roofed chamber; and… Read more
Beginning with thee, O Phoebus, I will recount the famous deeds of men of old, who, at the behest of King Pelias, down through the mouth of Pontus and between the Cyanean rocks, sped well-benched Argo in quest of the golden fleece. In July and August we will be reading the complete Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes. This month we will read Books 1 and 2. Discussion will start in… Read more