When Pindar says “Water is best, (ἄριστον μὲν ὕδωρ) and gold, like a blazing fire in the night, stands out supreme of all lordly wealth” in Olympian 1, he is not wrong. Life happens around water. It is hard to find an example that water is not present in our daily lives. Water cleans, nourishes, and heals. Who wouldn’t enjoy a nice bath? How about the ancient Greeks? In this… Read more
Having come across across references to trees and to wooden construction in the Iliad and Odyssey, my curiosity was piqued, and I decided to gather a few examples where wood and trees were mentioned, to try and better understand what these meant in Homeric and Hesiodic poetry. Are there any special associations with trees or using wood? What kinds of trees are mentioned? There are a number of similes with… Read more
Mycenaean gold When we see the golden artefacts found in the Grave Circles A and B at Mycenae and the so-called “treasure of Priam,” it shows an incredible abundance of gold, silver and bronze in the Mycenaean period. Even in Homeric poetry we have the mention of “Mycenae rich in gold” [polúkhrusos][1], and there are references various metals in Homeric and Hesiodic poetry: silver, gold, iron, along with copper and… Read more
A few thoughts about Orpheus, Musaeus and other poets. It is striking to see the order in which Plato in the Apology of Socrates enumerates four Greek poets, heroes, who were part of his literary or oral poetry or musical references, and with whom Socrates would like to engage in conversation [logos] in Hades. Who wouldn’t? If, when someone arrives in the world of Hādēs, he… finds…demigods [hēmi-theoi] who were… Read more
Semele and Selene, one was born a mortal and the other a goddess. Both have enchanting and melodious names in ancient Greek with the same type of resonance. No wonder we sometimes confuse one for the other. However their stories are very dissimilar and poles apart. Selene – also known as Menē in Pindar1 and in the Hymn to Selene2 – is a goddess and spends her days driving her… Read more