Bourdelle, Penelope Penelope is waiting for Odysseus to come back. She is not a widow, Odysseus’ death is unknown. She is not looking for a new husband. Yet, her house is full of suitors. She is not going back to her father to choose a new husband. Her status seems ominous. She is the Queen of the blameless Odysseus who is missing for ten years after the Trojan War. More… Read more
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