Marbled head of a veiled woman (500BCE)Metropolitan Museum of Art Andromache is a fascinating woman. Following her different bedfellows or husbands, we learn about her life. Andromache appears in many texts, among them the Iliad, Euripides’ play Andromache, the Aeneid, and the French play Andromache written by Racine who offers another perspective about Andromache. Her name means battle of a man, from ἀνδρός of a man and μάχη battle. How come,… Read more
Examples of Mycenean Swords We have had a discussion about the parts of armor and clothing, which did include some of the words for weapons, and Helene Emeriaud shared a gallery of images related to the subject, so now I would like to focus on the passages that describe the weapons themselves in more detail. In particular, I am interested in the passages where the weapons almost have a fame… Read more
A guest post by Myrmidon Dear Fellow HeroesX Participants, One of the out-and-out pleasures of the HeroesX project is gathering at the discussion board to exchange ideas and ask questions. During the 2014 iteration, we could always count on Professor Joel Christensen and the other supportive members of the Board of Readers to answer our questions, offer insights, and generally point us in the right direction. But there was more… Read more
Phoenician ship carved on sarcophagus. 2nd century AD. Credit: Elie plus at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons ~Medea and a Micronarrative Masterpiece from Odyssey 15~ The Hour 25 Book Club will host a discussion of Euripides’ Medea via Google Hangout on July 17 2015 at 2:00 p.m. EDT. Although this event is still several weeks away, members of our community have already begun to discuss major themes from… Read more
~ A guest post by Bill Moulton ~ Below is one of the pivotal scenes in Odysseus’ long journey home. He is near drowning on a storm-tossed sea. [It was as though the South, North, East, and West winds were all playing battledore and shuttlecock with it at once.] When he was in this plight, sweet-stepping Ino daughter of Kadmos, also called Leukothea, saw him. She had formerly been a… Read more