The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is running an exhibition called Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality until July 30, 2023. I couldn’t resist a visit! The story of Theseus and the Minotaur in the labyrinth at Knossos was well known, and there had been various conjectures about whether the site really existed. The original discovery of buildings and items at Knossos was by a Cretan, Minos Kalokairinos, in 1878. However, although… Read more
The Iliad starts with the anger of Achilles, but the last words belong to Hector’s funeral. Thus, then, did they celebrate the funeral of Hector, tamer of horses. Sourcebook Iliad 24.802-803[1] However, Casey Dué in Achilles Unbound: Multiformity and Tradition in the Homeric Epics[2] shows that an alternative ending line existed. The medieval manuscripts and all modern editions, such as that of Munro and Allen’s 1920 Oxford Classical Text, end… Read more
A priestess, a woman with magical powers, a mother, a lover, a woman abandoned by her husband, and a murderer. There are many faces of Medea. Being a priestess of Hecate, Medea has knowledge of magic and witchcraft. Medea boiling the ram before Pelias She will use this knowledge against her enemies. |395 By that mistress whom I revere before all others and have chosen to share my task, Hekate… Read more
To tie in with this month’s Book Club readings which include the Epinician Odes of Bacchylides, this Gallery features some ancient Greek artworks featuring the kinds of athletic contests celebrated in the poems. These contests seem to have been a favorite subject in the visual as well as the verbal arts from the earliest periods. Chariot race According to Britannica “From four to six chariots competed in a single race, normally… Read more
Tommaso Piroli, from John Flaxman: Funeral of Hector Achilles is “The Best of the Achaeans”[1], and Hector is the best of the Trojans. The Iliad starts with the anger of Achilles, but the last words belong to Hector’s funeral: Thus, then, did they celebrate the funeral of Hector, tamer of horses.Iliad 24.804[2] Biagio d’Antonio da Firenze: The Siege of Troy – The Death of Hector Achilles will eventually fall in… Read more