Kosmos Society

HeroesX Office Hours Videos

This page will include details of all the HeroesX Office Hours videos. Stay tuned for further updates!

v3 | v4 | v5 | v6 | v7 | v8 | v9 | v10 | v11 | v12 | v13 | v14 | v15 |

HeroesX v3 Office Hours

v03 Office Hours 01 | Questions about Epic and Lyric

Topics include: reading the Iliad, and the Odyssey; poetry, song, performance, and the oral poetic system, in ancient Greek song culture; slow and fast reading; the Catalogue of Ships; the anger [mēnis] of Achilles; withdrawal of Achilles.

Recorded during v3 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, covering questions raised by participants about Hours 1–7 (then called Module 1).

With Claudia Filos, Gregory Nagy, Leonard Muellner, Allie Marbry

v03 Office Hours 02 | Questions about Signs of the Hero in Epic and Iconography

Topics include: Patroklos and Achilles as a pair; metonyms; the therapōn; performance and addressing heroes and gods directly in epic, Homeric Hymns, and in other oral traditions; reality and truth of the mythological world; mūthos and visualization; the timelessness of the artificial; images on vase paintings; the tomb of Achilles from different points of view

Recorded during v3 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, covering questions raised by participants about Hours 6–11 (then called Module 2)

With Claudia Filos, Gregory Nagy, Leonard Muellner, Allie Marbry

v03 Office Hours 03 | Questions about the Cult of Heroes

Topics include: Some differences between Homer and Hesiod; How the structure of the Theogony would allow it to function as in introduction to the Iliad; Ways in which the medium of history interacts with the medium of poetry; The legal dispute depicted on the Shield of Achilles, as it applies to the poetry of Homer and Hesiod, as well as the prose of Herodotus

Recorded during v3 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, covering questions raised by participants about Hours 12–15 (then called Module 3)

With Claudia Filos, Gregory Nagy, Leonard Muellner, Allie Marbry

v03 Office Hours 04 | Questions about the Hero in Tragedy

Discussion topics include: The Furies as feminized, collective depiction of the unfinished business of angry heroes; Does tragedy confer kleos?; Untimeliness of tragic heroes

Recorded during v3 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, covering questions raised by participants about Hours 16–21 (then called Module 4).

With Claudia Filos, Gregory Nagy, Leonard Muellner, Allie Marbry

HeroesX v03 Office Hours 05 | Questions about Plato and Beyond

Discussion topics include: Does Plato really intend for Socrates to look like a hero?; How optimistic or pessimistic is Plato’s Socrates about the idea of heroic resurrection after death? How is the salvation of a hero linked to the hoped-for salvation of the hero’s worshippers?

Recorded during v3 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, covering questions raised by participants about Hours 22–24 (then called Module 5). (The discussion also introduces an annotation tool which was then available on the edX platform.)

With Claudia Filos, Gregory Nagy, Leonard Muellner, Douglas Frame, Allie Marbry

HeroesX v4 Office Hours

HeroesX v4 Office Hours 01 | Meleagros and Achilles

Discussion about Meleagros and Achilles, similarities and differences: their mothers; unquenchable [asbeston] or unwilting [apthiton] kleos; analysis and close reading in the humanties.

Recorded September 9 2015, during v4 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Hour 2 Discussion Question.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos.

HeroesX v4 Office Hours 02 | The Song of Achilles and Lamentation

Discussion topics include: the song of Achilles, lamentation, comparison of ancient Greek lament and the blues, epic glory, relay performance, the film Chunhyang as example of oral narrative, lament of Andromache, womens’ laments as a community performance.

Recorded September 14 2015 during v4 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Hour 3 Discussion Question.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone.

HeroesX v4 Office Hours 03 | Chariot Drivers and Chariot Riders

Discussion topics include: Chariot drivers, Comparing Patroklos/Achilles and Mērionēs /Idomeneus, Achilles’ prayer and remorse, Achilles as epic warrior and as cult hero, characteristics of the hero, Reading and reacting to passages together.

Recorded on September 21 2015 during v4 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Discussion Question for Hour 6.

With Gregory Nagy, Claudia Filos.

Reference made to:
Four studies at Classical Inquiries the first of which was published on 2015.05.01:

Nagy, G. 2015.05.01. “Mērionēs rides again: An alternative model for a heroic charioteer.” Classical Inquiries. https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/meriones-rides-again-an-alternative-model-for-a-heroic-charioteer/

Nagy, G. 2015.05.08. “The upgrading of Mērionēs from chariot driver to chariot fighter.” Classical Inquiries. https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/the-upgrading-of-meriones-from-chariot-driver-to-chariot-fighter/

Nagy, G. 2015.05.15. “A failed understudy for the role of chariot fighter: the case of Koiranos, the king who never was.” Classical Inquiries. https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/a-failed-understudy-for-the-role-of-chariot-fighter-the-case-of-koiranos-the-king-who-never-was/

Nagy, G. 2015.05.20. “The failed apobatic adventure of Pandaros the archer: A bifocal commentary on Iliad 5.166–469.” Classical Inquiries. https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/the-failed-apobatic-adventure-of-pandaros-the-archer-a-bifocal-commentary-on-iliad-5-166-469/

Ellen Bradshaw Aitken
https://chs.harvard.edu/authors/ellen-bradshaw-aitken/

HeroesX v4 Office Hours 04 | The Oar of Odysseus

Discussion topics include: cultural relativism, the oar / winnowing shovel of Odysseus, gaining different perspectives, Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes

Recorded on October 7 2015 during v4 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Discussion Question for Hour 11 and on comments and questions by participants.

Reference made to forthcoming resources on learning ancient Greek: since the original recording was made these are now online and available at Kosmos Society on the Learning Modules page.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

HeroesX v4 Office Hours 05 | The Five Generations of Humankind in Hesiod

Five generations of humankind in the Hesiodic Works & Days, categorizing humankind as 1 (positive cult hero) and 2 (negative cult hero):, 3 (negative epic hero) and 4 (positive epic hero), 5 the present. Storytelling and categorizing. The fifth generation as the point of reference or completion or recycling. The significance of ‘five’.

Recorded on October 14 2015 during v4 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 12 and the Hesiodic Works & Days

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

Reference made to chapter 9 “Poetic Categories for the Hero” in The Best of the Achaeans
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_NagyG.The_Best_of_the_Achaeans.1999

HeroesX v4 Office Hours 06 | Epic and Cult Heroes

This installment includes discussion of the following topics:

  • cult heroes and epic heroes: two views
  • the key word krinein ‘to distinguish’
  • formulas and “snowflakes”
  • metaphors, winged / feathered words
  • olbios and makar: being “blessed” in Homer and beyond
  • and more!

Recorded on October 22 2015 during v4 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 13 and on questions and comments from participants.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone

HeroesX v4 Office Hours 07 | Odysseus and Laertes in the Garden

This installment includes discussion of the following topics:

  • the recognition scene between Odysseus and his father
  • being “tested” by the Homeric tradition and by cult heroes
  • the meaning of “cult”
  • the experience of connecting with the hero
  • Pausanias and initiation
  • and more!

Recorded on October 29 2015 during v4 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Discussion Questions for Hours 14 and 15, and on comments and questions from participants.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos.

HeroesX v4 Office Hours 08 | Oedipus, Aeneas, and Cult Hero Worship

This installment includes discussion of the following topics:

  • Question on the permanent residence of Oedipus
  • Verbal and visual traditions about Aeneas
  • Cult hero worship and prayer
  • and more…

Recorded on November 14 2015 during v4 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Discussion Question for Hour 18, and on comments and questions from participants.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

HeroesX v4 Office Hours 09 | Women in Euripides

This installment includes discussion of the following topics:

The fifth version of HeroesX! And an opportunity to get credit through Havard’s Division of Continuing Education. (Update note: Harvard DCE are still offering The Ancient Greek Hero for credit, currently (2026) with Keith DeStone. https://coursebrowser.dce.harvard.edu/courses/)

Starting at 5:02:

  • In Euripides’ Hippolytus is Phaedra a pawn?
  • In Euripides’ Hippolytus and The Bacchae are women as irrational in both plays?
  • Male authority
  • The need for sincerity in initiation
  • An out-take about the intimate talk of women and girls, as described by Sappho

Recorded on November 16 2015 during v4 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Discussion Questions for Hours 20 and 21.

With Gregory Nagy, Claudia Filos, Keith Stone.

HeroesX v4 Office Hours 10 | Socrates and Dionysus

Discussion topics include: Socrates and Mousikē (as musical arts and as philosophy), Xenophon’s and Plato’s accounts of Socrates, the relationship of Plato and Socrates, the hero cult of Plato and of Socrates in the Academy; the myth of Dionysus in the Bacchae of Euripides and in the Homeric Hymn of Dionysus, the fates of Pentheus and the crew, the Roman myth of the dismemberment of Romulus.

Recorded on December 10 2015 during v4 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Discussion Questions for Hours 23 and 24.

With Gregory Nagy, Claudia Filos, Keith Stone.

Office Hours: HeroesX Version 5

HeroesX v05 Office Hours 01 | Epithets, and Song Culture

This installment includes discussion of the following topics:

  • Participants’ responses to the Discussion Question for Hour 1, considering the micronarrative of the story told by Agamemnon about Herakles, and the story in the Iliad about Achilles
  • Epithets and the relationship between meter and diction in Homeric poetry
  • What we mean when we call ancient Greece a “song culture”

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 1.
With Gregory Nagy and Claudia Filos

HeroesX v05 Office Hours 02 | Kleopatra and Andromache

Discussion topics include: Responses to the Discussion Question for Hour 3: the similarities and differences between Kleopatra and Andromache; Encouragement for community members working through the Annotation Exercises.

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 3.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

HeroesX v5 Office Hours 03 | Women in Homeric epic

Discussion topics include: Participants’ responses to the Discussion Question for Hour 5; How women in Homeric epic help us to see another side of male heroes; More encouragement for community members working through the Annotation Exercises

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 5.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

HeroesX v05 Office Hours 04 | Micro- and macro-narrative, Sacrifice of hair

Discussion topics include:

  • Participants’ responses to the Discussion Question for Hour 7
  • Welcoming questions and comments from early Hours
  • Thinking about micro-narrative and macro-narrative through the entire project
  • The sacrifice of hair by Achilles
  • and more!

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 7.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

HeroesX v05 Office Hours 05 | Bodies of Heroes, Elpenor, Disconnection

Discussion topics include:

  • Participants’ responses to the Discussion Question for Hours 9 and 10;
  • Why is it significant that the bodies of heroes remain intact?
  • Is Elpenor a a ritual substitute for Odysseus? What does his name mean?
  • Why does the Greek word nēpios mean disconnected? Disconnected from what?
  • How did the ancient Greek talk about reading? And what did “Homer” have on his mind?

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 9 and 10.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

HeroesX v05 Office Hours 06 | Particles, Thrones, Hesiod

Audio only, and the sound level is very low, but you can turn up the volume, and/or select CC for closed caption subtitles!

Discussion topics include:

  • Homer, thrones, and hero cults
  • “I now see it!”: Particles in ancient Greek
  • The Discussion Question for Hour 11
  • The transition to Hesiod and works of prose

Mentioned in the discussion:

Image: Homer and Hesiod. Photo: Jonathan. https://www.flickr.com/photos/suchnone/2178182782/ CC BY-NC 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 11.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos.

HeroesX v05 Office Hours 07 | Justice, and Hades as a Transitional Space

Kosmos location:

Audio only, and sound level is very low, but you can turn up the volume, and/or select CC for closed caption subtitles!

Discussion topics include:

  • In the garden of Laertes, Odysseus tests his father. What is the point of this testing?
  • Hesiodic poetry has much to say about dikē in the long-term sense of ‘justice’. Homeric poetry says hardly anything about justice. Is it because the question of justice does not apply to heroes of the Iliad and Odyssey?
  • The meaning of life
  • multiform depicting the death of Odysseus
  • the importance of hospitality in ancient Greek culture and in Greek culture today
  • Why is Achilles in Hades? (Hades as a transitional space)

Mentioned in this video:

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 12.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos.

Photo from: ‘Cyprus – Asphodel’ by Mike Finn https://www.flickr.com/photos/mwf2005/53569237658/ CC BY 2.0 

HeroesX v05 Office Hours 08 | Gardens of Laertes and Protesilaos

Discussion topics include:

Participants’ responses to the Hour 14 Discussion Question; Unseasonality and seasonality of heroes.

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 14.
With Claudia Filos, Keith Stone

HeroesX v05 Office Hours 09 | Hero Cults, and Ancient Greek Drama

Discussion topics include: Hour 25; The name for a Tongan war dance and community contributions to our project; Homer, thrones, and hero cults; Athenian state theater and the transition to ancient Greek drama; Professor Nagy’s reactions from his recent visit to the Acropolis of Athens.

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 16.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

Note: Hour 25 is now called Kosmos Society

HeroesX v05 Office Hours 10 | Sacrifice, Laments, and Fear

Discussion topics and questions include: The theme of human sacrifice in ancient Greek literature; Are laments spontaneous? Types of fear; The experience of traveling to Greece

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 17, Aeschylus Libation Bearers and Eumenides.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

HeroesX v05 Office Hours 11 | The cults of Oedipus

Discussion topics include:

  • The challenges of the Discussion Questions, and the benefit of other people’s perspectives
  • Finding patterns in the original texts
  • Weaving and emotion
  • Oedipus at Colonus as a tragedy as understood by the ancient world; the verbal art of tragedy as an evolving medium
  • Discussion Questions for Hour 18: the cults of Oedipus in Athens and in Colonus, and and Hour 19: viewing Oedipus as a cult hero in both Sophocles’ dramas, Oedipus Tyrannus and Oedipus at Colonus

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Discussion Questions for Hours 18 and 19.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

HeroesX v05 Office Hours 12 | Artemis, Correct ritual, Thebes, Hippolytus at Troezen

Discussion topics include: Euripides’ Hippolytus and Bacchae.

  • Hour 20: Hippolytus speaking to Artemis in a way that is pleasing to a goddess like Aphrodite. The relationship of Artemis and Aphrodite and their origins; goddesses seasonally shifting from virgin to mother and back. Artemis of Ephesus. The term “aidōs”.
  • Hour 21: the devotees of Dionysus as “moderate” represented by the Chorus in ritual, but as wrong in myth.
  • Thebes as a setting for tragedy and myth. Athens as a place of resolution.
  • Shift in perception of heroes from epic to tragedy, and the differing physicality of heroic characters.
  • Travels to Troezen, and connecting with the sanctuary of Hippolytus.

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Discussion Questions for Hours 20 and 21, and questions from participants.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

HeroesX v05 Office Hours 13 | Socrates and Plato

Discussion topics include:

  • Socrates comparing himself to heroes in the Apology of Plato. Socrates and the justice system. Comparisons with Ajax, Palamedes (and Odysseus).
  • In the Phaedo, why is Plato regarded as the most important follower but was not present at Socrates’ death? Comparing with other followers, e.g. Xenophon. In Plato’s works on Socrates he only mention himself twice but otherwise ‘erases’ himself, but some of the works are more about Plato’s philosophy.
  • Study groups for learning Greek, with supporting videos—since the recording was made these are now available at Kosmos Society.

Recorded in Spring 2016 during v5 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 22 and 23 Discussion Questions, and responses to participants’ comments and questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

Office Hours HeroesX Version 6

HeroesX v06 Office Hours 01 | Iliad 1 and Iliad 9

Discussion topics include comments and questions related to Hours 1 and 2 of The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, and community events.

What happens between Iliad 1 and Iliad 9. The farewell between Hector and Andromache in Iliad 6, and the drawing by John Flaxman of the scene. Honor [tīmē]. Menelaos and Helen’s view of Helen herself. Achilles’ differing responses to the three speeches of the ambassadors in Iliad 9. The Greek term aiōn ‘long time, era’, and as ‘life force’. Additional content, and Gregory Nagy’s ‘Sampling of Comments on the Homeric Iliad (and Odyssey)’.

Mentioned in this video:

Paper by Leonard Mueller: ‘Eins ist keins, zwei ist eins, drei ist alles: A Metonymic Interpretation of the Ruleof Three in Epic’
http://www.thehollyfest.org/index.php/leonard-muellner/

Ongoing commentary in progress of the Iliad (and since the recording, the Odyssey) now available at Classical Continuum:
https://continuum.fas.harvard.edu/a-sampling-of-comments-on-the-homeric-iliad-and-odyssey-restarted-2022/

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 1 and 2.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Claudia Filos

HeroesX v06 Office Hours 02 | Achilles and the Poetics of Lament

https://youtu.be/IgDfXvLFA2Q

Discussion topics include comments and questions related to Hour 3 of the Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours.

Ancient Greek heroes who are morally bad considered as anti-heroes in modern terms. Their larger-than-life traits; Achilles ‘upstaging’ the other heroes in the Iliad; how other epics may have had other heroes as the main focus. Relationships and gifts as honor and reward—material compensation according to status in a hierarchical system. Achilles as the major player in acquiring plunder and captives for the community of warriors. Honor [tīmē] and worth. The status of Chryseis and Briseis. The lack of support for Achilles by the other warriors. The lament of Andromache. The image labeled as Sappho and Alcaeus attributed to the Brygos Painter. A figure in ¾ view: which way is she turning? Hector and Andromache and the song of love and lament.

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 3.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Claudia Filos

Mentioned in this video:

HeroesX v06 Office Hours 03 | Briseis, Lament, and Aphrodite

Discussion topics include:

  • Ancient Greek brides, lament, and Aphrodite—with a focus on the description of Briseis at Iliad 19.282–302, where which she is compared to Aphrodite as she sings a lament
  • Achilles, Patroklos, and the word therapōn, ‘attendant, a ritual substitute’
  • Diction as the best expression of theme in oral traditions

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 5 and 6.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Claudia Filos

HeroesX v06 Office Hours 04 | The Anger of Achilles, and the psūkhē

Discussion topics include: The anger of Achilles; The final meeting between Achilles and Priam; Depiction of a psūkhē on an ancient Greek vase

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 7 and 8.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Claudia Filos

HeroesX v06 Office Hours 05 | The Relationship of Iliad and Odyssey

Discussion topics include: The relationship between the Iliad and the Odyssey; An image featuring the blinding of Polyphemos by Odysseus and his men.

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 9 and 10.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone

HeroesX v6 Office Hours 06 | Consciousness, Homecoming, and a Boeotian Odysseus

Discussion topics include responses to comments and questions from the community about the relationships between noos ‘consciousness’, nostos “homecoming, song of homecoming’.; The image depicted on a 4th century BCE Boeotian Skyphos.

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 11.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone and Claudia Filos

HeroesX v06 Office Hours 07 | Justice, Palm Trees, and the Transition to Prose

Discussion topics include responses to comments and questions from the community about the relationships between: Poetry and prose; Homeric and Hesiodic traditions; Justice and vegetal images

In particular Gregory Nagy and Keith Stone discuss an Attic red-figure column-krater (c. 450 BCE) that features (from left to right) Artemis holding an oinochoe; Apollo holding a laurel branch and a phiale, about to pour a libation on the altar left; the personification of the Delos island on which the scene takes place (see the palm-tree).

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 12.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone

Image: Attic red-figure column-krater, c. 450 BCE, National Archaeological Museum of Spain.
Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen (User:Jastrow), 2008-05-02 [CC BY 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo_Artemis_Delos_MAN.jpg Apollo, Artemis, and a palm tree.

HeroesX v06 Office Hours 08 | Nostalgic Viewpoints, What “Homer” Knew

Discussion topics include:

  • Why descriptions of hero cults may be more explicit in the time of Philostratus’ On Heroes;
  • Subtexts in Homeric poetry;
  • The modern Greek concept of agnanti and longing [pothos] in the context of ancient Greek hero cult

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 14.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

Image: View from the temple of Aphrodite at ancient Trozen in Greece. Photo by Keith Stone.

HeroesX v06 Office Hours 09 | Aeschylus’ Agamemnon vs. Homer’s Agamemnon, The Shining

Discussion topics include:

  • Analysis of the Queen of the Night aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute, in connection with discussion about the Oresteia.
  • Depictions of Agamemnon in tragedy and Homeric epic
  • Analysis of an iconic scene from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining in connection with discussion about Clytemnestra’s speech

Here’s the dialogue at the beginning of this clip:

Danny: Tony why don’t you want to go to the hotel?

Tony: I don’t know.

Danny: You do too know. Come on tell me.

Tony: I don’t want to.

Danny: Please.

Tony: No.

Danny: Tony tell me.

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 16 and 17.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

HeroesX v06 Office Hours 10 | Oedipus, the downfall of Heroes, and Night of the Iguana

Discussion topics include: The hero as a cult hero and as a tragic hero; Oedipus as a savior; Myth, ritual and miasma; Oedipus as a turannos; Hippolytus and Phaedra

This dialogue also includes discussion about the following movie clips:

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 18, 19 and 20.
With Gregory Nagy, Claudia Filos

HeroesX v06 Office Hours 11 | The Bacchae, Dismemberment, and Suddenly Last Summer

Discussion topics include: Euripides The Bacchae, the dismemberment of Pentheus, the foundation myth of tragedy, and a crucial scene from the film adaptation of Suddenly, Last Summer.

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 21.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos

HeroesX v06 Office Hours 12 | Socrates, his inner voice, and “theorizing” as a sacred voyage

Discussion topics include: Does Socrates really believe what he says about a daimonion as some kind of an inner voice that communicates with him? How is the “theorizing” of Socrates as he engages in dialogue with his followers in the Phaedo relevant to the theōriā or sacred voyage of the Athenian ship of state from Athens to Delos and back?

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 22 and 23.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone

HeroesX v06 Office Hours 13 | The Song of Moses, The Shield of Achilles, and ox-vision Hera

Discussion topics include:

  • The new book by Keith Stone: Singing Moses’s Song: A Performance-Critical Analysis of Deuteronomy’s Song of Moses https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674971172
  • The Shield of Achilles in Iliad 18 and in myths about the life of Homer
  • The meaning of epithets associated with Hera and Athena, which are sometimes translated into English as ‘ox-eyed’/’owl-eyed’, or better ‘ox-vision’ Hera and ‘owl-vision’ Athena.

Recorded in Fall 2016 during v6 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone

Office Hours HeroesX Version 7

HeroesX v07 Hour 01 |Agamemnon in Iliad 1, Kingship, and More

Discussion focusing on the following questions and topics:

  • In Iliad 1, are we to assume that Agamemnon is a “bad character”?
  • Can you find in this case any signs of good as well as bad characteristics?
  • How can modern readers being to think about the role of leaders such as Agamemnon within this poetic tradition?

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 1 and comments and questions from participants.
With Gregory Nagy and Claudia Filos.

HeroesX v07 Office Hours 02 | The Last Meeting of Hector and Andromache

Discussion in response to the developing conversation about the final interaction between Hector and Andromache in the Iliad. How do these two characters respond to each other? In what ways, if any, are their interactions effective? In what ways, if any, are they ineffective? We also respond to a community question about the meter of Homeric epic.

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 3, and comments and questions from participants.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Claudia Filos.

HeroesX v07 Office Hours 03 | Sappho’s Iliad, and Is the Iliad Pro-war?

Discussion topics include:

  • Sappho and the Iliadic tradition
  • Is the Iliad pro-war? Does the tradition ignore suffering in its pursuit of kleos?
  • How does it incorporate the experience of women?
  • How can we connect these poems to our modern lives without projecting our own values onto the ancient works?

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 5 and 6, and comments and questions from participants.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Claudia Filos.

HeroesX v07 Office Hours 04 | Is the Funeral of Patroklos Ritually Correct? and Starting the Odyssey

Discussion about the funeral of Patroklos. Is that ritual polluted by individuals who have undertaken morally questionable acts?

Professor Nagy also offers some advice for first time readers of the Odyssey.

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 7, and comments and questions from participants.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Claudia Filos.

HeroesX v07 Office Hours 05 | What’s Special about Odysseus?

Discussion about laments in the Iliad and Odyssey and about Odysseus’s qualities, particularly in contrast to Achilles, the hero of the Iliad.

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 8, 9, and 10, and comments and questions from participants.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Claudia Filos, Hélène Emeriaud and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v07 Office Hours 06 | Odysseus, Penelope and Recognition Scenes

Discussion about all the interactions of Penelope with the disguised Odysseus, asking: why does it take her so long to be sure that this stranger is really her long-lost husband?

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Hour 11 Discussion Question, and comments and questions from participants.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v07 Office Hours 07 | Right and Wrong, Penelope’s Weaving, Homer and Hesiod

A discussion about Penelope’s weaving and verbal arts, the interweaving of Penelope’s and Odysseus’ identities, Odysseus’ divine antagonists, his multifaceted character and the meaning of Penelope’s name; Hesiod’s persona and the genre of Hesiodic poetry, the differences of moral judgement in Hesiod and Homer, Hesiod and Athens, and the contest between Homer and Hesiod.

This video features brief excerpts from the following videos:

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Hour 12 Discussion Question, and comments and questions from participants.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Janet M Ozsolak and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v07 Office Hours 08 | Croesus, World History, and the Heraion

Discussion about Croesus, world history, the Argive brothers Kleobis and Biton, and visiting the Heraion and Olympia during the Harvard Spring Break Travel Study Tour.

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Hour 13 Discussion Question, and comments and questions from participants.
With Gregory Nagy and Hélène Emeriaud (in Greece), Keith Stone, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v07 Office Hours 09 | Longing for the Hero

A discussion of Philostratus’ On Heroes and cult heroes: the poetics of longing and to what extent the view from the third century CE can retrospectively change our perception of heroes in the Iliad.

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Hour 14 Discussion Question, and comments and questions from participants.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Janet M Ozsolak and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v07 Office Hours 10 | The Beauty of Clytemnestra

Discussion about the dysfunctional couple Clytemnestra and Agamemnon in the Oresteia and in the Odyssey, how Clytemnestra is also beautiful and a mother; the complicated family tree; the location of Agamemnon’s murder, the rebirth of Iphigeneia, twenty thousand participants in a cathartic experience, the aesthetics of grief and anger and the example of the Queen of the Night, Penelope and her geese, and the weaving of Penelope, Helen and Clytemnestra.

At 12:11 the discussion refers to an aria of the Queen of the Night in Mozart/Bergman’s The Magic Flute.  The same aria can be viewed here in a recording with Diana Damrau from The Royal Opera.

A calyx krater with the killing of Agamemnon (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), discussed at26:58, can be viewed here:
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/153661

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Hour 16 Discussion Question, and comments and questions from participants.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Janet M Ozsolak and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v07 Office Hours 11 | Euripides

Discussion about Euripides, in particular his dramas Bacchae and Hippolytus. Topics include his unique contribution and modernity in experimenting with multiple or local versions of the myths and traditions, female initiation, the aetiology of rituals, performance of tragedy in Athenian state theater by male acttors and chorus portraying both male and female roles, representation of female thoughts and emotions, Artemis as goddess of winds, and of certain aspects of the female experience, and of the hunt for males, the two heroic roles and the two divine antagonists, use of masks, connection with the Dionysia and the god Dionysus.

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 20 and 21.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Janet M Ozsolak.

HeroesX v07 Office Hours 12 | Plato’s Odysseus, and Socrates’ Ongoing Dialogues

Discussion about Plato’s Socrates. The story in the Phaedo leaves room for us to think that Socrates may have had a brief private conversation with his wife, Xanthippe, before she was taken away from the scene. Do you think we can guess what words might have been exchanged? And based on Plato’s Apology, does Socrates like Odysseus? Topics include: Socrates’ reading of the Iliad. What conversations might he imagine having in the underworld? Odysseus’ interviews in the underworld. The ongoing story of Odysseus and the prophecy of Teiresias. Menelaos and Helen and their cults in Sparta. The ongoing philosophical dialogue of Socrates. The changing truths of Achilles and of Odysseus in the epics.

Mentioned in the discussion:

Nagy, G. 2015.03.27. “The last words of Socrates at the place where he died.” Classical Inquiries. https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/the-last-words-of-socrates-at-the-place-where-he-died/

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 22 and 23, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak and Sarah Scott, with contributions off-camera from Greg’s wife Olga Davidson (“Holly”).

HeroesX v07 Office Hours Extras: 01 | Oedipus, Lameness, and Being Upright

Discussion about the significance of Oedipus’ lameness, and the name of his grandfather, Labakos, defectiveness of feet and walking, Hephaistos, thunderbolts, Anchises, mēnis, symbolic actions and symbolic representations; Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus and moving from being in the wrong place at the wrong time to being in the right place at the moment of death, polluting actions, and the power of cult heroes.

Recorded in Spring 2017 during v7 of MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, in response to participants’ questions, particularly in reference to Oedipus at Colonus (Hour 18).
With Leonard Muellner, Sarah Scott

Office Hours HeroesX Version 8

HeroesX v08 Office Hours 01 | “Fate” and Myth-Ritual, and the Embassy to Achilles

Discussion topics include: “Fate,” and the unfairness of Hera to Herakles, in the story told by Agamemnon in Iliad 19. Do gods control “fate” or is this something separate? Can the gods “mess up” in their kosmos as humans “mess up” in theirs? The difference between the age of myth and the age when the myths were told in the ancient Greek song culture, and how rituals function in the post-heroic age. The goddess Atē: a superhuman force of derangement and veering. Rituals and myths or sacred narratives in 5th century Athens, and in the modern world. The story ttold by Phoenix to Achilles in the Embassy scene in Iliad 9. To what extent has Achilles understood what it will mean if he stays or goes? The three different speeches to Achilles.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 1 and 2.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v08 Office Hours 02 | Laments of Women and of Men

Discussion topics include: The lament of Andromache and the response of Hector, in Iliad 6. Were the lamentations of women and men different, in the song culture? The physiological difference in crying, how Achilles laments, and the name of Achilles. Andromache, Hector, and their son Astyanax. The helmet of Hector compared with the headdress of Andromache in a later lament. The foreshadowing of the destruction of Troy. The contribution of women’s laments to the song culture. The connection of lament, love songs, and weaving.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 3 and 4
With Gregory Nagy, Sarah Scott, Hélène Emeriaud and Janet M Ozsolak

Mentioned in the discussion:

Hélène Monsacré: The Tears of Achilles
English edition:
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_MonsacreH.The_Tears_of_Achilles.2018
French edition:  Les larmes d’Achille

Margaret Alexiou: The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition
available online at:
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_AlexiouM.Ritual_Lament_in_Greek_Tradition.2002

HeroesX v08 Office Hours 03 | Sappho’s Wedding Song, and the Iliad

Discussion topics include Sappho’s Wedding Song of Hector and Andromache, and the Iliad, and responses to the Hours 5 and 6 Discussion Questions.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 5 and 6.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v08 Office Hours 04 | Reading the Vase Paintings and the Iliad

Discussion topics include: the significance of gaze direction in the ancient Greek vase painting, of owls, cows and initiatory visions of Athena and Hera, of a life-sized psūkhē of Patroklos in the Iliad and miniature versions on vases, of the epic directly addressing heroes.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 7.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v08 Office Hours 05 | Odysseus among the Phaeacians

Discussion topics include Odysseus among the Phaeacians and responses by participants to the Discussion Question for Hour 10.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 10.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

Mentioned in the discussion:
Frame, Douglas. 2009. Hippota Nestor. Hellenic Studies Series 37. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Frame.Hippota_Nestor.2009

HeroesX v08 Office Hours 06 | Achilles in the Iliad and in the Odyssey

A discussion of Achilles in death and in life, in the Iliad and in the Odyssey, of the complementarity of the two epics, of the characters’ awareness of the medium, of Agamemnon’s epic failure; of Penelope as a key to Odysseus’ fame, of Achilles as an ideal lover, and of Odyssey 24 as “the end of the rainbow.”

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 11.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v08 Office Hours 07 | The End of the Odyssey

Discussion topics include: the Odyssey’s totalizing character in performance, eternity as cycling back to Laertes’ garden, and winnowing as a symbolic activity.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 12 and 13.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

Wooden winnowing shovel, Natural History Museum, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence
https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co39068/wooden-winnowing-shovel

HeroesX v08 Office Hours 08 | Hero Worship and Ancestor Worship

Discussion topics include: myth-and-ritual as systems of communications that reinforce social norms, establishing patterns and conveying their meaning in a given community; of visual and verbal channels of communication in myth; changeability of myths as their fundamental quality; of Pausanias’ perception of traditions of myths and rituals; Greek heroes as stylized ancestors; Leonidas’ lineage and Athenian phūlai.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on issues relating to the Discussion Questions for Hours 13, 14, and 15.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v08 Office Hours 09 | Agamemnon and the Dysfunctional World of the Heroes

Discussion topics include participants’ responses to the Hours 16 and 17 Discussion Questions, about Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, and Eumenides.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on issues relating to the Discussion Questions for Hours 16 and 17.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v08 Office Hours 10 | Oedipus

Discussion about Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus and Oedipus Tyrannus.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on issues relating to the Discussion Questions for Hours 18 and 19.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v08 Office Hours 11 | Phaedra and Pentheus

A discussion of Euripides’ Hippolytus and Bacchae.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on issues relating to the Discussion Questions for Hours 20 and 21.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v08 Office Hours 12 | Socrates and the Afterlife

Discussion about Plato’s Apology and Phaedo, the death of Socrates, and his view of the afterlife.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on issues relating to the Discussion Questions for Hours 22 and 23.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

Mentioned in this video:
Plato Republic, 10.614b–10.621d “The myth of Ēr”
You can find it on Perseus, starting here:
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168%3Abook%3D10%3Asection%3D614b

Aristophanes Clouds, which is also available on Perseus:
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0241

HeroesX v08 Office Hours Extras 01 | Epithets, Dogs, Thersites

Discussion about epithets in Homeric epic, scavengers and the role of dogs, and the speech of Thersites in Iliad 2.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, in response to participants’ questions.
With Leonard Muellner, Sarah Scott

HeroesX v08 Office Hours Extras 02 | Women and Men, and philiā

Discussion of the roles of women and men in Homeric epic poetry, and the concept of philiā.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, in response to participants’ questions.
With Leonard Muellner, Sarah Scott

Mentioned in this video:
Benveniste, Émile. 1974. Indo-European Language and Society. Miami. See Part 3: Social Status, Chapter 4: philos
https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/chapter-2-status-of-the-mother-and-matrilineal-descent/

HeroesX v08 Office Hours Extras 03 | Vase paintings, boar hunts, and eroticism

Discussion about the use of color in vase paintings, the significance of boar hunts, and the language of eroticism.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, in response to participants’ questions.
With Leonard Muellner, Sarah Scott

Image links:

Charioteer of Delphi, 470s BCE, bronze. Delphi Museum, Greece
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAurigaDelfi.jpg

François vase, black-figure volute krater, 570–560 BCE, National Archaeological Museum of Florence
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kleitias_e_vasaio_ergotimos,_cratere_fran%C3%A7ois,_570_ac_ca._02.JPG
and
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museo_archeologico_di_Firenze,_Vaso_Fan%C3%A7ois_5.JPG

Amphora with Achilles and Penthesilea at the British Museum:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=399372&partId=1&searchText=vase+exekias&page=1

HeroesX v08 Office Hours Extras 04 | Writing, Manuscripts, and Customary Law

Topics include the history of writing in ancient Greece, performance and written versions of Homeric epics, manuscripts, scholia; compensation and ransom, customary law, the beginnings of written law.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, in response to participants’ questions.
With Leonard Muellner, Sarah Scott

Mentioned in this video: Svenbro Jesper: Phrasikleia: An anthropology of reading in Ancient Greece. Translated from the French by Lloyd Janet. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.

HeroesX v08 Office Hours Extras 05 | Roman Heroes, and Ancient Greek Perception of Color

Discussion about Roman heroes, and Romans’ views of Greek heroes, focusing on Aeneas, and color terms and color perception in ancient Greek.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, in response to participants’ questions.
With Leonard Muellner, Sarah Scott

Mentioned in the discussion:
Hardin, C., & Maffi, L. (Eds.). (1997). Color Categories in Thought and Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511519819

HeroesX v08 Office Hours Extras 06 | Translating the Epics

Discussion about translation issues.

Recorded in Fall 2017 during v8 of MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, in response to participants’ questions.
With Leonard Muellner, Sarah Scott

Mentioned in this video:
The Sourcebook — translations of the HeroesX texts — which is available to download in various file formats at the Kosmos Society Text Library

Of related interest: Series of video discussions between Gregory Nagy, Douglas Frame, and Leonard Muellner on passages from the Odyssey

Also mentioned in this video:
A Homer Commentary in Progress
https://ahcip.chs.harvard.edu/
https://oc.newalexandria.info/

HeroesX v09 Office Hours

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 01 | Hēraklēs, and Attributes of the Ancient Greek Hero

Discussion topics include: Hērā and Hēraklēs as recounted in Iliad 19.76–138, the ordeal, superhuman and extreme attributes of the ancient Greek hero, the differences between modern concepts of the hero and those of ancient Greek song culture.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 1 and 2, and the Hour 1 Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

Mentioned in this video: Hēraklēs having three rows of teeth—this can be found in Omphale by Ion of Chios, and in Julius Pollux “Onomasticon”.

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 02 | The Song of Andromache and Hector

Discussion topics include: Andromache’s lament in Iliad 6 and of Hector’s echoing response/relay singing; the anticipatory force of laments, their ability to move in time; Andromache’s and Hector’s scales of affection; the power of epic names; Hector’s perfect funeral and the significance of the order of laments in Iliad 6 and 24.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 3 and 4, and the Hour 3 Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 03 | Sappho and Achilles

Discussion topics include local color in the poetry, types of performance and roles of performers, fragments of Sappho, Achilles as bridegroom and as focus of poetry, wedding traditions, men’s and women’s song culture traditions and themes.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Hour 5 and 6 Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

Mentioned works:
Alexiou, Margaret, The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_AlexiouM.Ritual_Lament_in_Greek_Tradition.2002

Engelmayer, Caroline “A Lyric Aristeia and a Lover’s Rout: Gender and Genre in Sappho 31.” in Classics@16: Seven Essays on Sappho
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:EngelmayerC.A_Lyric_Aristeia_and_a_Lovers_Rout.2017

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 04 | The Perception of psūkhē

Discussion topics include eye-contact and direction of gaze in vase-painting and epic, the nature and appearance of psūkhē in Homer, and the perceptive abilities of the psūkhē of Patroklos.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Hour 7 and 8 Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 05 | The Opening of the Odyssey

Discussion about how the opening 9 lines of the Odyssey help us to understand the whole epic.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on the Hour 9 Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

Mentioned in this video:
Levaniouk, Olga. 2011. Eve of the Festival: Making Myth in Odyssey 19. Hellenic Studies Series 46. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Levaniouk.Eve_of_the_Festival.2011

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 06 | Achilles in the Odyssey

Discussion topics include: whether your view of Achilles changed after reading the Odyssey, in particular Odyssey 24; comparing Achilles’ kleos with Odysseus’ kleos and nostos; the complementarity and connectedness of the Iliad and Odyssey; Homeric audiences’ view of Achilles; finding the humane side of Achilles; the extreme cruelty of both Achilles and Odysseus; views of Hades and hints of transitions to an afterlife; versions of Helen in the poetic tradition; the eidolon; trying to ‘get’ the Iliad and Odyssey by reading and rereading.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 10 and 11, and responses to the Hour 11 Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

Mentioned in this video: ‘A Sampling of Comments on the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey’, now updated and continuing at Classical Continuum:
https://continuum.fas.harvard.edu/a-sampling-of-comments-on-the-homeric-iliad-and-odyssey-restarted-2022/

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 07 | Odysseus on Ithaca and Beyond

Discussion topics include: the end of the Odyssey, the negative side of Odysseus, and trickster figures; baby heroes; of Odysseus’ hero cult on Ithaca and multiple locations of Homeric Ithaca; Aeolic and Ionian tombs of Achilles and of the Athenian ownership of Achilles’ tomb in the 5th century BCE.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 12 and 13, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 08 | Achilles as Cult and Epic Hero, and Initiatory Experiences

Discussion topics focus on the work of Philostratus and the ancient Greeks’ emotional response to Achilles in his role as a cult hero, and comparing this to his role as an epic hero as seen in the Iliad and Odyssey; and to what extent Pausanias was transformed by his initiation into the hero cult of Trophonios.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 14 and 15, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 09 | Sympathy for Agamemnon?

Discussion topics focus on Aeschylus’ Oresteia: Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, and Eumenides. Reactions to Agamemnon in the light of reading Aeschylus’ Agamemnon; comparing Agamemnon/Clytmenestra with Odysseus/Penelope; Agamemnon stepping on the red robe/carpet, and distributing spoils inequably; the sacrifice of Iphigenia and the daughters of Agamemnon; Agamemnon as cult hero in Argos; to what extent Athena solves the problems of vendetta by the end of the Eumenides and in myth establishing trial by jury for the Athenians.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 16 and 17, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 10 | Oedipus and his Cults

Discussion topics focus on Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus and Oedipus Tyrannus: the importance of Oediupus in the grove where his corpse resides alongside all the other superhuman forces that reside there; to what extent we could understand Oedipus as a cult hero just from the Oedipus Tyrannus; the cults and rituals associated with cult heroes in different locations and reusing the myths.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 18 and 18, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

Mentioned in the discussion:

Nagy, G. 2018.03.29. “On Ariadne, draft of a new Foreword to a 1970 work of Robert T. Teske on a latent divinity.” Classical Inquiries. https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/on-ariadne-draft-of-a-new-foreword-to-a-1970-work-of-robert-t-teske-on-a-latent-divinity/

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 11 | Troezen, Phaedra and Hippolytus, and the Bacchae

This video includes photographs of Troezen. Topics include gender roles for humans and for gods, Amazons, foundational myths, Athens, nurse, trophos – breastfeeding, yearnings in myth and ritual, Where the Boys Are, Phaedra, Artemis, the menstrual cycle, Pentheus, Dionysus, Pausanias.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 20 and 21, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

Mentioned in the discussion:
Helen Poumara Karydas: Eurykleia and her Successors: Female Figures of Authority in Greek Poetics

For the reference to the rush of wind in the uterus, see H24H 20§48 (in which Gregory Nagy pays tribute to the late Nicole Loraux on this subject), also §§54, 59.
Nagy, Gregory. 2013. The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_NagyG.The_Ancient_Greek_Hero_in_24_Hours.2013

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 12 | Drinking from Socrates’ Spring

https://youtu.be/r6wrRZ15vTY

A discussion of Socrates as a cult hero, and of the ancient Greek conceptions of afterlife.
Due to technical difficulties Gregory Nagy is not visible on screen during this recording, but you can still hear him!

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 22 and 23, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

Mentioned in the discussion:

Nagy, Gregory. 2015. Masterpieces of Metonymy: From Ancient Greek Times to Now. Hellenic Studies Series 72. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies. Available online at CHS:
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Nagy.Masterpieces_of_Metonymy.2015

HeroesX v09 Office Hours 13 | Being olbios, Connectedness, and Dionysus

Discussion about the Homeric Hymn (7) to Dionysus: imagining the singer of the Hymn as the saved steersman of the story; being destined to become olbios after death; the sailors and the dophins; invoking Dionysus .

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour24, and responses to the Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v09 Office Hours Extras 01 | Song Culture, Names, Gods and Heroes

Discussion topics include:

  • Iliad as part of a song culture tradition
  • Names of characters reflecting their stories and vice versa
  • Meaning of the name Achilles
  • Traditions in epic and other representations of the stories
  • Ancient Greek gods as part of the world
  • Relationships and interaction of gods and humans

Mentioned during the discussion: A useful reference site for those who want to find out more about the stories and characters in the tradition, along with the associated original texts, can be found at http://theoi.com

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, in response to participants’ questions.
With Leonard Muellner, Sarah Scott

HeroesX v09 Office Hours Extras 02 | Speech Acts, Women in Epic, Integration of Opposites

Discussion topics include speech acts and epic poetry; how women are portrayed in the Odyssey compared to the Iliad; integration of the hero.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, in response to participants’ questions.
With Leonard Muellner, Sarah Scott

References mentioned:

John R. Searle on speech acts. See for example “What is a Speech Act?” https://faculty.unlv.edu/jwood/unlv/Articles/SearleWhatIsASpeechAct.pdf

Martin, Richard P. The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Martin.The_Language_of_Heroes.1989

Muellner, Leonard Charles, The meaning of Homeric εὔχομαι through its formulas
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_MuellnerL.The_Meaning_of_Homeric_eukhomai.1976

Chapter 17 “Penelope and the Penelops”
in
Levaniouk, Olga. 2011. Eve of the Festival: Making Myth in Odyssey 19. Hellenic Studies Series 46. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Levaniouk.Eve_of_the_Festival.2011

Dué, Casey:
Homeric Variations on a Lament by Briseis
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Due.Homeric_Variations_on_a_Lament_by_Briseis.2002

The Captive Woman’s Lament in Greek Tragedy
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Due.The_Captive_Womans_Lament_in_Greek_Tragedy.2006

Part 3. Athens, Chapter 8. “Arete and Nausicaa”
in
Frame, Douglas. 2009. Hippota Nestor. Hellenic Studies Series 37. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Frame.Hippota_Nestor.2009

HeroesX v09 Office Hours Extras 03 | Achilles, Patroklos, Ritual Sacrifice and Fatal Attraction

Discussion about the Iliad: prestige and honor, individuals and the group, the withdrawal of Achilles, Patroklos as ritual substitute, fatal attraction and antagonism of heroes and gods.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, in response to participants’ questions.
With Leonard Muellner, Sarah Scott

HeroesX v09 Office Hours Extras 04 | Words and Themes in Oral Poetic Traditions

Discussion about words and themes in Homeric poetry and the poetic tradition. Topics include tongues, libations, the myth of return, sēma, tombs, aisa and moira, fate, tripods.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, in response to participants’ questions.
With Leonard Muellner, Sarah Scott

HeroesX v09 Office Hours Extras 05 | Funeral Games, and Trojans

1. Discussion of Iliad 23.326–343: the funeral games for Patroklos.
Topics include the ainos and how there can be more than one meaning in a passage; whose tomb [sēma] is being used as a turning point; rituals associated with athletic contests.

2. Discussion about the Trojans as viewed by the Greeks.

Recorded in Spring 2018 during v9 of MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, in response to participants’ questions.
With Leonard Muellner, Sarah Scott

HeroesX v10 Office Hours

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 00 | On Reading and Re-Reading the Iliad

The HeroesX Team ask Gregory Nagy for advice to participants who may be approaching the texts—and the forum discussions—for the first time. How each reading and re-reading, and community discussion, enables everyone’s understanding to evolve.

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 01 | The Super-muse of the Iliad

Discussion topics include: the singularity or multiplicity of the Muse(s) in the Iliad; divine inspiration; authority; the question of locales, occasions/festivals, and presiding deities at performances of the epic poetry; the Iliad as a super-genre, combining multiple genres; the narrative of Phoenix; speaking in turn and out of turn.

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 1 and 2, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 02 | Achilles and Andromache

Discussion topics include: Achilles the lover, Andromache’s connection with Amazons, meanings of Amazons’ names, Achilles as a virtuoso singer, Andromache as a virtuoso lamenter, regrets of Achilles and the characters’ awareness of their power.

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 3 and 4, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 03 | Heroes as Healers; Female Song Traditions in Iliad

Discussion topics include: Sappho and women’s song traditions in the Iliad: laments, love songs, curses, remedy songs; the therapeutic heroes: drugs and scapegoats, the medicinal skills of Achilles and Patroklos, and heroes after death as superhuman healers.

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 5 and 6, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 1 and 2, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 04 | Visual and Verbal Variants; The Weight of psūkhē

Discussion topics include: the relation between the tradition of the Iliad and the Athenian vase-painting; fusion of myth and ritual (of hero and athlete) on vases; representations of psūkhē; life-sized or miniature ghost of Patroklos; weighing golden butterflies and the scales of Zeus.

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 7 and 8, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 05 | Bad Press of Odysseus, and the Consciousness of Home

A discussion of Odysseus as a trickster, and as a villain outside of the Odyssey; Odysseus changing language and identities; embassy scene in the Iliad; anger of Athena at Odysseus; Palladium; the story of Odysseus’ companions at the Lotus-Eaters as a compressed example of the relationship between nostos and noos.

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 9 and 10, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 06 | Does the Odyssey Ever End?

Does the Odyssey come to a completion or does it stay open–ended? A discussion of the return, recognition and revenge; the end of the vendetta with suitors’ families through divine intervention; the prophecy of Teiresias; new travels of Odysseus; the sēma of Odysseus and his hero cult; the mysterious death of Odysseus; Penelope’s completion of her weaving; the end of Heroic Age.

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 11, and responses to the Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 07 | Justice and Happiness

Discussion topics include: concepts of right and wrong, justice and injustice, as well as happiness and its connections with heroes, in Homer and Hesiod. Gardens and cosmic order; what is paradise, and how is it different from a wildlife sanctuary?

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 12 and 13, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 08 | Lamenting Achilles

Discussion topics include: the laments of Briseis and Achilles over Patroklos; shifting sorrows in laments; group performance and lead singers; the adoption of female voice by Achilles; Achilles as a stand-in for Homer; epic virtuosity in expressing pain; sentiments and sentimentality in the epic (in comparison with Philostratus On Heroes); sensual longing for heroes.

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 14 and 15, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 09 | Agamemnon, Iliad, Aeschylus, and Furies

Discussion topics include Agamemnon in the drama of Aeschylus and in the Iliad, variants and interdependence in the myths, the role of the Furies (Erinyes) in the Libation Bearers and in the Eumenides of Aeschylus.

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 16 and 17, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 10 | Poseidon at Colonus, Sphinx’s Riddle as Nightmare

Discussion topics include: Poseidon in Oedipus at Colonus; olives in a saline soil; Poseidon’s creation of the first horse; Colonus the rider of chariots; and Theseus son of Poseidon. The riddle of the Sphinx in Oedipus Tyrannus: the swollen feet of Oedipus, a three-legged creature, a walking-stick dance of the chorus, Jocasta’s brooch in Euripides, and personal nightmares of Oedipus as the solution to the riddle of the Sphinx.

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 18 and 19, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 11 | Euripides the Anthropologist, and Sorrows of Heroes

Discussion topics include: A fluid dramatic age of the chorus in Hippolytus; Athenian young men reenacting initiation rites of girls in Trozen; a unique reference to menstruation (or PMS) in the chorus’ song; complementarity of Aphrodite and Artemis. The kleos of Pentheus and of Achilles: heroes as men of sorrow, antagonism with Dionysus and Apollo, hubris of Pentheus and of Achilles; ritually correct chorus of the Bacchants; putting Dionysus back into tragedy.

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 20 and 21, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v10 Office Hours 12 | Socrates, Ship of State, and Keeping the Word Alive

Discussion topics include Socrates’ heroic quest, of the absence of Plato at the death of Socrates, of Theseus as the founder of democracy, and of a sacred voyage, celebrating salvation of the word.

Recorded in Fall 2018 during v10 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 22, 23 and 24, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

Office Hours HeroesX Version 11

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 01 | Muse speaking for the Cosmic Record

A discussion of the Muse invoked in the beginning of the Iliad; local three muses and Panhellenic nine Muses; Calliope as the Muse of the Theogony; poet and characters inside the poetry channeling the total recall of the events that the Muses have.

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 1 and 2 and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 02 | Achilles, His Women, and How to Like Him

A discussion of traditions portraying Achilles as a lover; Achilles and the Amazon Penthesileia; Andromache’s similarity to Amazons; her marriage to the son of Achilles; Andromache as the diva of the Iliad; the warlike name of Briseis; Achilles the Homeric poet

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 3 and 4 and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 03 | Sappho’s Achilles, and Therapeutic Intersubjectivity

Discussion of the representation of Achilles in the poetry of Sappho; Achilles as an ideal bridegroom who never becomes a husband; the merger of identities between Achilles and Patroklos; the lament of Achilles for his father and for Patroklos, “the glory of ancestors.”

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 5 and 6 and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 04 | Being Drawn into Pictures of Achilles and Patroklos

Kosmos location:

Discussion topics include representations of Achilles and Patroklos in vase-painting. Achilles hitting the ground running; his hairstyle; bearded and beardless; portrait of Achilles by The Achilles Painter; anger of Patroklos; emotional reactions to the contact with the world of heroes; being part of the action while viewing the vases; looking in or looking out?

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 7 and 8 and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 05 | Odysseus the Violator of Protocols

Discussion topics include the “bad press” of Odysseus and how he violates protocols, and the Lotus-Eaters as a microcosm of the Odyssey.

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 9 and 10 and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 06 | The Shock of Pollution and the Joy of Apollo’s Feast

Does the Odyssey create a feeling of completion or incompleteness? A discussion of motifs and themes in the Odyssey that generate both of these sensations. Reunion of Odysseus with Penelope, Telemachus, Laertes; the return of the king of Ithaca; the polluting murders and the end of the vendetta; predicted new travels and death of Odysseus; multiple traditions about the death of Odysseus; eternal return of the pleasure of Apollo’s festival.

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 11 and responses to the Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 07 | Right and Wrong in Homer and Hesiod

Discussion topics include the notions of right and wrong in Homer and Hesiod; rarity of hubris and dikē in Homer, along with the analysis of the few notable occurrences of these words in the Homeric epics. Sharper conceptions of right and wrong for females and by females; the hubris of Agamemnon; Achilles and the body of Hector; the human sacrifice at the funeral of Patroklos; the just king in the Odyssey, a flood of Zeus as a punishment of unjust people in the Iliad, and the appearance of the concept of justice in the Homeric similes; the rhapsodic mode of performance of the poetry of Hesiod.

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 12 and responses to the Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 08 | Greek Heroes: Happiness, Sorrow and Sentimentality

A discussion of the connection between the concept of hero and happiness; the larger-than-life emotions of heroes; the lament of Briseis as less “heroic” than the lament of Achilles, and eliciting more empathy; the woundings of heroes, either lethal immediately, or resulting in a full recovery.

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 13, 14, and 15, and responses to the Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 09 | Agamemnon between Mycenae and Argos; and More on Love

A discussion of the myths about Agamemnon in the Iliad and in Aeschylus; different political agenda of different versions of myth, stemming from different locales; the annihilation of Mycenae by Argos; absence of Sparta in the Oresteia; Argos as an ally on Athens in 458 BCE; the metaphor of lion cub and its relevance to Aegisthus (whose mythical story as a foundling is not spelled out in the Oresteia); characterizations of philiā and eros.

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 16, and responses to the Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 10 | Whose Side are the Furies on, or the Unfinished Business of Heroes

A discussion of the Oresteia of Aeschylus, with a focus on Eumenides. The Furies as a collectivized expression of the anger of heroes; the primal anger, associated with olfactory images; the ritual of law court process established to acculturate the Furies, with vendetta substituted by the long-term/absolute justice; Apollo (in charge of male lineage) vs. Athena; a connection with a law (closely preceding the Oresteia in date), which reformulated the Athenian identity from patrilinear to depending on both parents being Athenian.

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 17, and responses to the Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 11 | Oedipus and Poseidon, Oedipus and Sphinx

A discussion of the figure of Poseidon in Oedipus at Colonus; simultaneous competition and cooperation between Poseidon and Athena in Athens; Athena as mother goddess; Theseus and his connection to Poseidon; Colonus as Poseidon’s landmark and the horseman Colonus as Poseidon’s counterpart; the role of the sphinx in Oedipus Tyrannus; swollen legs of Oedipus and the connection to the riddle of the sphinx; sphinx as a nightmare; Thebes as enemy of Athens at the time of the play; plague in Athens; the prehistory of the myth of Oedipus.

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 18 and 19, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 12 | Unbearable Pain as a Subject of Song

A discussion of the Hippolytus and Bacchae of Euripides. The interaction of chorus with Phaedra and the nurse; intimacy of language and thought; lament as a synthesis of female life-experiences; the question of the relation between the chorus and Hippolytus. The kleos of Pentheus and its similarities to the kleos of Achilles; the loss of Patroklos as a result of the actions of Achilles, and the pain of Achilles; the etymology of Pentheus and Achilles; Pentheus as a hero; god-hero antagonism, Dionysus and Pentheus as look-alikes; the identity of Dionysus as crossing gender boundaries.

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 20 and 21, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

HeroesX v11 Office Hours 13 | Socrates as a Hero, Plato’s Absence, and Theseus the Savior

A discussion of Plato’s Apology and Phaedo: the existence of a hero cult of Socrates in Plato’s Academy; Socrates as a different kind of hero; a rooster for Asklepios — perhaps for Plato’s health; Plato as an absent signifier; Theseus as a hero-founder of the Athenian democracy.

Recorded in Spring 2019 during v11 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 22, 23, and 24, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M. Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott

Office Hours HeroesX version 12

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 01 | The Iliad and its Muse, or Muses

Discussion topics include: the figure of the Muse as a source of narrative authentication in the Iliad. Nine Muses of the Catalogue of Ships; rhapsodic performances of the Iliad; an abridged invocation of the Muse in the epic, and long versions of the invocation of deities in the Homeric Hymns; Orpheus the son of Calliope as an early notion of a poet.

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 1 and 2, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 02 | Achilles the Lover

A discussion of a potential connection between Achilles and Andromache; similarities between Andromache and Briseis; the names of Briseis and Chryseis; the sadness of Achilles as a perfect bridegroom who does not live to be married; Achilles the singer and the poet; Sappho and Achilles

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 3 and 4, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 03 | Sappho, Achilles and the Therapeutic Heroes

A discussion of the representation of Achilles by the poetry of Sappho, and of the connection of Achilles to Lesbos in the Iliad; the meaning of therapōn and its changes through time.

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 5 and 6, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 04 | Visualizing Achilles and Patroklos

A discussion of the visualizations of Achilles and Patroklos in Homeric poetry and in the vase-painting; their similarities and differences; the idea of Patroklos as a body-double of Achilles, and a notion of Patroklos as an older Achilles, the one that Achilles does not become.

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 7 and 8, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 05 | Odysseus Violating Social Norms, and Reconnecting with Homecoming

Discussion about: Odysseus’ actions compared to those of Achilles and other heroes, the epic theme of return (nostos) and delay, Odysseus as trickster and violator of social norms, and the anthopological role of the trickster; the Land of the Lotus Eaters as exemplifying aspects of the whole Odyssey, the relationship between noos (thinking) and nostos (homecoming), traps and layers of understanding, straightening out the puzzle of the epic journey.

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 9 and 10, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 06 | Completeness and Incompleteness, Right and Wrong

Does the Odyssey reach a completion? A discussion of the problem of the pollution, created by Odysseus’ revenge on the suitors; Telemachus, Orestes and Peisistratus as transitional figures between the present and the heroic world; Odysseus “mopping the floor” at the end of the Odyssey; a ritual completion is reached through the recycling of the Odyssey in performance. A similar ethical problem of the polluting funeral of Patroklos in the Iliad. A question of right and wrong in Homer, which is not mapped out juridically, as in Hesiod.

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 11 and 12, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 07 | Happiness and Heroes; the Best of Lamenters

Is happiness in the ancient Greek culture linked with the heroes? A particular kind of happiness has this connection; a happiness understood as retaining a contact with a cult hero. A discussion of the laments of Achilles and Briseis; Briseis indirectly laments for her husband and her life; Achilles models the future laments for himself. Women of Elis lament for Achilles at the start of the Olympic Games.

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 13 and 14, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, and Janet M Ozsolak.

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 08 | Homer and Sentimentality; A Wider Lens for Agamemnon

A discussion of sentiments and sentimentality in Homer; and do we need to know the Homeric epics to understand Agamemnon of Aeschylus?

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 15 and 16, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 09 | Looking Deeper into the Heroic Past

A discussion of myths of the earlier generation of heroes; archaeology and anthropology of ancestors; Jason as healer; Argo and mental ships in Indic tradition; self-reflexivity as a sign of the system disintegration; and divine epiphanies.

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on questions raised by participants.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 10 | The Partisan Furies; a Kaleidoscope of Gods and Heroes at Colonus

A discussion of the Libation Bearers and the Eumenides of Aeschylus, and of Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus; dysfunctional sacrifice; drama as sacrifice; the etymology of Poseidon, the shaker of earth; relating to the local mother-earth at Colonus; Athena as a mother; olives and the sea; gods sharing space.

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 17 and 18, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith Stone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 11 | Oedipus as the Riddle’s Answer; Zigzagging Chronology of the Chorus

Discussion of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus and of Euripides’ Hippolytus.

Oedipus Tyrannus: defective body of a king; reenacting Oedipus in a dance; generalizing or particularizing answer to the Sphinx’s riddle; creating new pollution while driving out old one; the Sphinx (choker) as a nightmare.
Hippolytus: varieties of interactions of Phaedra and the chorus: inconsistencies in the age of the chorus, similar to shifts in women’s laments/love song; Euripides the anthropologist using initiation songs of girls from Troezen; Phaedra, ‘moonbeam,’ and lunar monthly cycle; sentimental education of the young Athenians in the chorus through identification with non-Athenian women; modulations in gender registers in Theseus’ speech over the body of Hippolytus.

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 19 and 20, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 12 | Suffering, Produced and Directed by Dionysus; Socrates and Heroes

A discussion of the Bacchae of Euripides and the Apology of Socrates by Plato. The suffering and the kleos of Pentheus; a comparison between Pentheus and Achilles; Socrates’ references to the Iliad; Socrates as a citizen-soldier; his imagined conversations with Achilles; Plato’s appropriation and modification of earlier traditions; Plato’s conservatism in the use of older traditions, associated with the figures of Orpheus and Musaeus.

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 21 and 22, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v12 Office Hours 13 | Plato Behind the Camera, Theseus and Theory

A discussion of the significance of Plato’s absence in Phaedo, and of the figure of Theseus as a savior. Hero cults of Socrates (and Plato), the immortality of the word; Plato’s appropriation of earlier traditions; Alexander the Great coming to life whenever books of the library of Alexandria were read; the ship of state and the theory of forms.

Recorded in Fall 2019 during v12 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 23 and 24, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone,Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

Mentioned in this video:

Stephen White: “Socrates at Colonus: A Hero for the Academy” in Reason and Religion in Socratic Philosophy, 2000.

Gregory Nagy. 2015.04.02. “On Traces of Hero-Cults for Socrates and Plato” in Classical Inquiries; subsequently rewritten 2025.11.19 at Classical Continuum

https://continuum.fas.harvard.edu/on-traces-of-hero-cults-for-socrates-and-plato/

Office Hours: HeroesX Version 13

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 01 | Muses, Narrators and Listeners of the Iliad

Discussion of the significance of a single Muse in the beginning of the Iliad, and a multiplicity of the Muses in Scroll 2. Why does Phoenix not invoke the Muses when narrating the story of Meleager? The timelessness of the epic.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 1 and 2, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 02 | Loving Achilles?

Topics include: a potential relationship between Achilles and Andromache; Andromache as an Amazon’s name; Achilles and the Amazon Penthesilea; the “speaking names” of Chryseis and Briseis. How can Achilles be liked by the modern readers? The ancient reactions to Achilles, love and tears. Thetis as a goddess of unlimited potential, the creatrix of the universe.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 3 and 4, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 03 | Sappho, Achilles, Ares and Aphrodite; Charioteer and Chariot-rider

How does the poetry of Sappho affect our understanding of Achilles? A discussion of Ares and Aphrodite as a model for a bride and a groom; Ares and Apollo as divine antagonists of Patroklos/Achilles; the complexity of Achilles. Charioteers, chariot-drivers, and therapōn as a second-millennium BCE loan from Hittite; the necessity of a mental connection between the rider and the driver; charioteers taking a hit for chariot-riders; the sacrifice of a ritual substitute; the motif of twins riding a chariot; Krishna the charioteer instructing Arjuna.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 5 and 6, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 04 | Achilles and His Many Faces

The varying depictions of Achilles on vases, frescoes and in other mediums. The conversation identifies how these different—and even contradictory—illustrations are in fact part of a larger culture of variation and multitude. Specific features include identifying the blemish on Achilles and the corresponding need for recurrent ritual purification; the significance of acts that are morally questionable; vase paintings of Patroklos and Achilles; Athenian apobatic races and the chariot races in Scroll 23 of the Iliad; representations of psūkhē as miniature versus life-sized; and finally, the role of these depictions in both simplifying and complicating our understanding of the characters.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 7 and 8, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 05 | Odysseus: Bad Press All Around?

Discussion topics include: Odysseus and questions surrounding his reputation; does Odysseus more often than not get bad press or can we find indications of good character as well? Participants touch upon a variety of topics, among these, Odysseus’ act of grave offense committed against Athena wherein he stole the Palladium; the relationship between Penelope and Odysseus; two instances of specialized registers, phéme and aînos; the literal ‘stripping away’ of the character in Odyssey 5; and Odysseus’ capacity for regeneration and revival. The discussion concluded with the observation that the Odyssey presents a particularly exciting challenge for readers given its complexity and subtext.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 9, and responses to the Discussion Question.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 06 | Odyssey: The (in)Completeness of the End

Topics include a continuation of discussion of complex Odysseus, focusing on both the events that befall the character as well as the narrative itself. A key theme which emerges in the conversation is the significance of nóos which seems to be the precise subject that the Odyssey is about. One might say in fact, no nóos, no nóstos. Other concerns include the cyclical nature of consciousness, and questions of completeness or incompleteness of a reading of the Odyssey. As Gregory Nagy notes, perhaps a better question to pose is why Odyssey stops where it stops. Participants were also curious as to how much one can trust Odysseus’ narrative. In this, Gregory Nagy emphasized the importance of re-examining the way we understand the English term, “lie” versus the Ancient Greek term which aligns more closely with a sense of ‘getting something wrong’ often through concealment of a kernel of truth. Other themes include the meeting with Tiresias, prophecies that go beyond our version of the Odyssey, the narrative myth structure, and the etymology of λωτός/lōtós.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 10 and 11, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, and members of the HeroesX Team.

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 07 | What’s Right and What’s Wrong?

Discussion examines the age-old question of right versus wrong. Specifically, as Gregory Nagy points out, the question about what is morally right and morally wrong. Participants examine various contexts which might address this question; the scene when Andromache tries to convince Hector to fight Achilles; guest and host relationships which require a certain set of rites to be performed, and cult practices that place heroes in daily lives. The conversation also turns to the role of the gods and their morality, and how the status of this morality changes from the Heroic to post-Heroic age. Still other topics include judgments by gods and kings; Hesiodic poetry; and heroes as stylized ancestry.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 12 and 13, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 08 | Cry Me A Hero: On Lament & Sentimentality

This week Gregory Nagy and the participants discuss lament and sentimentality in the Odyssey and Iliad. With lament at least, participants observed the genre’s connection to pothos – or longing/yearning. Gregory Nagy also pointed out how ‘lament’ and ‘love song’ have a way of interweaving in Greek and other traditions. Within this relationship, pothos certainly becomes a driving force of love song. Other themes explored in relation to lament was its structure or internal ‘grammar’ with the accompanying physical action and precision of language through repetitions and pairings. Participants also acknowledged the gendered differences in lament whereby the physiology of crying in men is different than it is in women. Interestingly, Achilles is found to cry physiologically in both ways. Participants also explored the varying ways in which sentimentality can be said to emerge in the tradition, as for instance in the meeting between Odysseus and his father; Achilles and Phoenix’s relationship; and Nestor’s advice to his son. Other topics include the primacy of the hero cult; pan-Hellenism as a tendency rather than absolute; and ancestral connections.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 14 and 15, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 09 | Agamemnon, Courting, and Ritual Purification of the Past

Examples of Agamemnon’s behavior in the Iliad and in the Aeschylus Agamemnon: the kouridiē “duly courted” wife and dating rituals, the name of Chryseis, the wooing of Helen in Hesiod; the metaphors of lions and eagles, the background of the Trojan War narrative in the song culture apart from the Iliad and Odyssey; the Furies in the Libation Bearers and the Eumenides: the agenda of Athena, vendetta vs rule of law and trial by jury, the Erinyes as embodiment of collective anger, processing and purification of disfunctionalities of the past through ritual, blood and cultural relationships, libations and sacrifices.

Mentioned in this video:

Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. New York.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours Hours 16 and 17, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 10 | Poseidon, Oedipus, and the Sphinx

Discussion topics include: the white rock, the horse begotten by Poseidon, and mother Earth at Colonus; the Sphinx as a nightmarish superhuman force, the inappropriateness of treating Oedipus as a cult hero and savior, and the riddle exemplifying the stages of Oedipus’ own life.

Mentioned in this video: “Elle avait pris ce pli” by Victor Hugo.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 18 and 19, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 11 | Chorus, Kleos, and Connections

Discussion topics include an exploration of the first choral passage of the Bacchae of Euripides which proves to be quite an emotional text. Participants note the chorus’ connection not just with theater goers but also characters within the Heroic Age. Chorus is also said to be a ritual agent — ritual in a myth complex. Reenacting myth is in a sense enacting the ritual and the prime vehicle for this enactment is the chorus. Gregory Nagy also finds that the chorus, whether in the Athenian city center or other conservative places, is capable of mimesis that far surpasses the mimesis an actor is capable of. As a traditional medium it can reenact any role one can imagine and is thus very versatile.

Participants also examine the close connection between chorus songs and the genre of ‘love-songs’ especially given the relation to Phaedra in Euripides’ Hippolytus. Other themes include traditions of women’s lament in ancient and modern Greek song culture. In these contexts, Gregory Nagy notes, it is easy for female voices to modulate from one stage of life to another in a nonlinear or ‘zig zag’ manner. The discussion also moves to an exploration of kleos as it pertains to both Achilles and Phaedra, and the question as to whether there is grounds for Phaedra to be considered an epic hero.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 20 and 21, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 12 | Philosophers and Epic Heroes

Discussion centers on a hypothetical conversation between the ancient Greek philosophers and epic heroes; specifically a potential dialogue between Socrates and Achilles and Odysseus in the afterlife. Conversation turned to the possibility that Socrates would probably not consider Odysseus to have sophiā, potentially exposing him. Participants also noted potential parallels between Socrates and Achilles, where the former seems to make the same two-fated choice of dying rather than compromising. Other topics included the role of Plato in both the Socratic dialogues and as potential director of the epic play; writing as a form of copying and thus, poor substitute for dialogue; the theory of ideal forms; and the significance of the observer or of theōriā.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 22 and 23, and responses to the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v13 Office Hours 13 | Theorizing about Theseus

Discussion on the subject of hero cults and eventually, the character of Theseus. Participants initially considered how democratic the development and emergence of heroes was for Athens. Gregory Nagy was of the opinion that hero cults are hero cults, which is to say, that they are ultimately kingly figures. Participants were also curious as to whether there would have been a similar worship of a single cult hero in Sparta. Gregory Nagy’s response was to observe that given the system of dual kingship, this would certainly not have been the case.

The discussion also turned to Theseus who is known for his Athenian lens, so to speak. As both high priest and king of Athens globally and locally, he marks an important figure. This is all the more true when we consider he is the only character in Oedipus who understands and fully controls the story; he is at once the number one hero of Athens and everything belonging to Attica. Gregory Nagy and his colleagues explored the significance of the locale particularly when it comes to understanding the Ancient Greek hero; one cannot fully appreciate this figure without knowing the local definition of hero.

Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 24, and responses to the Discussion Question.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

Office Hours: HeroesX Version 14

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 01 | The Hero, the Gods, and the Superhuman

Discussion topics include: the relationship of the gods/goddesses and heroes/heroines; superhuman vs supernatural; characteristics of heroes; unseasonality and being exceptionality; agency, free will and determination; myth [mūthos] as cosmic truth; kleos of heroes and divinities; disfunctionality and immorality in the world of myth; the uniqueness of the Iliad and of Achilles; Orphic and Homeric traditions; Calliope as the Muse of kings; three Muses—Mnēmē, Meletē, Aoidē; Catalogue of Ships; performance and reading as relay.

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 1 and 2, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 02 | Women’s World and a Hero in it: Kleopatra, Andromache and Achilles

Discussion topics include: lament as a means of persuasion; the meanings of the names Alcyone, Kleopatra, Patroklos, Andromache; women’s clothing as a focus in lament; the honor and brutality of Achilles; Achilles through women’s eyes; Achilles through warriors’ eyes; ascending scale of affection; Achilles as part of the big picture.

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 3 and 4, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 03 | Getting to Know Achilles

Discussion topics include the various ways in which the reader— and listener—can come to better know Achilles. Participants point out how a reading of Sappho can elucidate one’s understanding of Achilles, and quite possibly, of the deities in the Iliad as well. Discussion also turns to the close relationship between the character of Patroklos and Achilles—close in an emotional, but also, physical sense. Professor Gregory Nagy observes how in Patroklos one might find a softer, kinder Achilles, and the significance of Patroklos’ donning of Achilles’ armor. The conversation thereupon turns to themes of homo-eroticism (versus homosexuality), literal closeness, and intimacy. While sexuality is certainly one way of expressing intimacy, the Iliad expresses something even more intimate by posing the question: Am I willing to give up my life for my fellow warrior? Finally, the discussion also turns to the role of Briseis as a mediator and potential advocate between Patroklos and Achilles.

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 5 and 6, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 04 | Verbal and Visual Art Forms: The Depictions of Two Heroes

Discussion topics include visual—and verbal—descriptions of two heroes in the Iliad, Achilles and Patroklos. Among other things, participants discuss the kind of verbal art associated with the character of Achilles, specifically epithets such as “Achilles swift of foot.” Greg argues that Achilles receives this epithet not only because he is a warrior but also because he is a great dancer—akin to Ares, the god of war. Discussion focused on visual representations of Achilles such as in the Boston Hydria with reference to triskeles—meaning 3 limbs/legs—and denoting a spinning of sorts even as the image itself is a snapshot frozen in time. Similar discussions took place around the depictions of Patroklos leading participants to broach the importance of ekphrasis—verbal art which produces a picture. The conversation concluded with an appreciation for the different types of imagery that can be depicted both by narrative song-making, and visual paintings themselves.

Referred to in this video:

Nagy, Gregory. 2020.09.25. “How Homeric poetry may help us achieve a keener appreciation of Sappho’s wedding songs” Classical Inquiries
https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/how-homeric-poetry-may-help-us-achieve-a-keener-appreciation-of-sapphos-wedding-songs/

Boston Hydria: Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 63.473; painting on the body of the vase; Stähler no. 15
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/153447/water-jar-hydria-with-the-chariot-of-achilles-dragging-the

Lessing, G. E. 1766. Laokoon, oder Über die Grenzen der Mahlerey und Poesie. Translated by E. A. McCormick as Laocoön: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry. 1962. Revised ed. 1984. Baltimore.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1964. The Raw and the Cooked.

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 7 and 8, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 05 | Good Press, Bad Press: Odysseus All Around

Discussion focuses on the Odyssey and its protagonist. Participants considered the different lights in which Odysseus has been portrayed in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Gregory Nagy and others explore ways in which the character of Odysseus is ambivalent, shadowy—and often, quite simply bad. Other themes discussed this week include the critical relationship between nostos/νόστος and nóos/νόος. Participants discussed various scenes in which this relationship comes to the fore, including the episode of Polyphemus losing his eye, Odysseus asleep yet dreaming of speeding home, and perhaps most significantly, the description of the lotus eaters.

Referred to in this discussion:

Monsacré, Hélène. 2018. The Tears of Achilles. Trans. Nicholas J. Snead. Introduction by Richard P. Martin. Hellenic Studies Series 75. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_MonsacreH.The_Tears_of_Achilles.2018

Nagy, Gregory. 1999. The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_NagyG.The_Best_of_the_Achaeans.1999

Nagy, Gregory. 2008. Homer the Classic. Hellenic Studies Series 36. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Nagy.Homer_the_Classic.2008

Nagy, Gregory. 2009. Homer the Preclassic
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Nagy.Homer_the_Preclassic.2009

DeStone, Keith. 2016.09.28. “Getting Over Odysseus” in Classical Inquiries
https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/getting-over-odysseus/

Nagy, Gregory. 2020.08.18. “An Iliadic Odyssey as a song of the Sirens”. in Classical Inquiries
https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/an-iliadic-odyssey-as-a-song-of-the-sirens/

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 9 and 10, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 06 | The (In)Completeness of Odyssey and the Prophecy of Teiresias

Discussion about how fulfilling—or complete—the end of story of the Odyssey might be for readers. The prophecy of Teiresias and the scene of the future was put forward as one possible example of a certain sense of completeness. Gregory Nagy, however, pointed out that it may be more imperative to think about the Odyssey in terms of two adjectives: Homeric and Odyssean. The Homeric is the star of an epic that symmetric with the narrative of the Iliad whereas the Odyssean is far more wide ranging and broad. The prophecy of Teiresias then, is a scene which can be said to broaden the horizon or spectrum. Other themes discussed in this Hour included the death of Achilles, the funerals of the major protagonists, and controversies in Classical scholarship.

Referred to in this discussion:

Film: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096764/

Nagy, Gregory. “A sampling of comments on the Iliad and Odyssey” (started in Classical Inquiries) Classical Continuum
https://continuum.fas.harvard.edu/a-sampling-of-comments-on-the-homeric-iliad-and-odyssey-restarted-2022/

A Homeric Commentary in Progress
https://ahcip.chs.harvard.edu/

Frame, Douglas. 2009 Hippota Nestor. Hellenic Studies Series 37. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Frame.Hippota_Nestor.2009

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 11, and responses to the Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 07 | What’s Wrong, What’s Right, and Everything in Between

Discussion about the different approaches of Homeric and Hesiodic poetry. One of the primary questions was whether Homeric poetry addresses ‘what is right’ and ‘what is wrong?’ even if it doesn’t answer questions of justice and injustice.

As Gregory Nagy points out, an important subtlety for answering this question is to look at the distinctions between the Master Narrator and the speaker in the works of the Iliad and the Odyssey. A few occasions in either works include the scene of Nestor speaking in Odyssey 3, and the simile in the Iliad where the onslaught of Achaeans is likened to the onslaught of Zeus punishing a population with a thunderstorm. Other related themes include use of dikē and hubris (or lack thereof); death and its various shades of meaning, and the successful passage from one stage to another.

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 12 and 13, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 08 | Gardens and Initiations

A dynamic discussion on the role of gardens and vegetation as they relate to Laertes in the Odyssey. Participants explored the significance and symbolism of the garden ranging from questions about the garden as a possible burial site for Laertes’ wife Antikleia, to the parallels between growing shoots and the young heroes in a hero cult. Other themes included the status of the garden as a possible sacred precinct, its relationship to the larger community in the island of Ithaca, and connection to young Odysseus in the orchards.

Participants also examined the unique character of Pausanias and questions surrounding his spiritual and emotional transformation. Professor Nagy noted how Pausanias is a quintessential 2nd-century-CE Greek, someone with a very intellectual, very inquiring mind who takes with total seriousness the cults of gods and heroes. Finally, the conversation explored the possibility of inscriptions at the site of Pausanias, and the nature of the initiation experience.

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 14 and 15, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 09 | Tragedy, Anger, and Agamemnon

This discussion considers the Homeric epics as background to the Agamemnon of Aeschylus, epic and tragedy performance in Athenian festivals, the Libation Bearers and Eumenides of Aeschylus, versions in tragedy of the Oresteia myth, the Furies and Athena, the embodiment of heroic anger, the language of trial by jury, justice and the garden.

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 16 and 17, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 10 | The Tragedies of Oedipus

Discussion about the tragedies of the wretched cult hero figure, Oedipus. Topics included an exploration of ancestral customs from a localized and district perspective; the role of Theseus as hero of Athens and hero of the unification of districts; and heroic pollution. In connection to this latter subject, participants explored the need for purification or ‘catharsis’ as in the case of Agamemnon and his killing of his daughter. Gregory Nagy notices that the body politic who is the ‘audience’ of Athenian state theater gets to be purified with every retelling of the myth. Purification demands eternity but eternity in a cyclical way.

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 18 and 19, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 11 | Cult Heroines and Parallel Kleos

Discussion about the possible status of Phaedra as a female cult hero in her own right. The discussion considered how, without the passionate love of Phaedra, there may not be a cult hero status for Hippolytus. Other themes explored the metaphor of intertwining, and the significance of unrequited and antagonistic love. Gregory Nagy pointed out a central characteristic of Euripides’ drama, that of the wandering mind of Phaedra. The imagination of Phaedra often conjures beautiful and visual imagery which serve to emphasize the verbal art of Euripides. Other topics included similarities in kleos of Achilles and Pentheus for reasons pertaining to their status as heroes, their tragic deaths, and even the role of mothers.

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 20 and 21, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 12 | Socrates and The Heroes

Discussion focusing particularly on Socrates as presented by Plato in the Apology. Participants considered which comparison of Socrates to other heroes in this text is most apt. While some suggested Odysseus given the parallels between the two characters’ journeys on a ‘quest’, Gregory Nagy pointed out that ultimately, Odysseus is a trickster. It is perhaps the character of Achilles, and in particular Achilles’ moral integrity which is most aligned with the moral integrity of Socrates, rather than that of Odysseus.

Other topics discussed included a question over the ‘heroic’ nature of Socrates’ quest, the notion of theory and theōriā as invented by Socrates, and juries versus judges. Finally, participants also pointed out the significance of Socrates’ enduring legacy such that we may find ritualized practice among Socrates’ followers continuing generations upon generations. Greg Nagy was of the view that there is increasing evidence to suggest that Socrates was the beneficiary of a hero cult, as indeed, was Plato.

Mentioned in the discussion:

Chapter 1 of:
Nagy, Gregory. 2015. Masterpieces of Metonymy: From Ancient Greek Times to Now. Hellenic Studies Series 72. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Nagy.Masterpieces_of_Metonymy.2015

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 22 and 23, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v14 Office Hours 13 | Hero as Savior

Discussion in response to an open-ended question about passages which delineate heroes as ‘saviors.’ Suggestions included a selection from Libation Bearers about Orestes; Hippolytus and Phaedra as cult heroes worshipped by local populations; Penelope as savior and cult hero; and a passage from Herodotus regarding Kleobis and Biton. Participants also noted the salvific function associated with cult heroes more generally.

Mentioned in the video:

Pausanias: Description of Greece. Please see:
https://continuum.fas.harvard.edu/a-pausanias-reader-in-progress-description-of-greece-scrolls-1-10/

Recorded in Fall 2020 during v14 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 24, and responses to the Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX Office Hours | v15

HeroesX v15 Office Hours 01 | Gods, Muses, and World(s) of Dysfunctionality

Discussion about the world of Herakles, the gods and the ‘present day’ listeners of the Iliad in general. Topics include: unfairness leading to heroism (in the case of Herakles), dysfunctionality in the worlds of gods and mortals, and invoking the Muses for a Hellenic world. Characters and themes include: Herakles, Hera, Atē, kleos, agōn, and Ēōs.

Recorded in Spring 2021 during v15 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 1 and 2, and the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v15 Office Hours 02 | Andromache, Kleopatra, and Achilles

Exploration of how alike and unlike the two female characters of Andromache and Kleopatra are. The discussion turned to a consideration of names: their meaning and significance, and in particular the Amazon references in Andromache’s name with implications for the role of women warriors. Gregory Nagy also noted that beyond her Amazon characteristics Andromache also stands as a superb lament artist who is quoted three times, versus Kleopatra who is only paraphrased. From a Homeric point of view, Andromache is often seen as much more successful even though her husband at the time dies whilst Kleopatra’s at this point in the narrative is still alive. Discussion also turned to the theme of women’s agency in lament as well as the question of lament as a whole; Gregory Nagy characterized epic as a super genre with its embedded independent genres of which lament is an important part. Participants also explored the likability of the character of Achilles and his virtuosity particularly when it came to oral poetics and the art of the verbal form.

Recorded in Spring 2021 during v15 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 3 and 4, and the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v15 Office Hours 03 |Sappho’s Song and Aromatic Words

Discussion topics include: a consideration of the role of Achilles to the verbal epic, relationship between mortals, heroes and gods, and the significance of Sappho to a reading of Iliad. Gregory Nagy also explored the notion of ‘exported’ or borrowed words from different cultures such as therapōn. As he points out, translations of such words often carry a certain ‘aroma’ or fragrance of meaning that are resonant from one culture to another. Other plot lines examined included the relationship between Achilles and Patroklos.

Recorded in Spring 2021 during v15 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 5 and 6, and the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, and members of the HeroesX Team.

HeroesX v15 Office Hours 04 | Visual and Verbal Artistry

Discussion about the role and power of visual art in facilitating an understanding of the Homeric classics. In particular, discussion turned to the capacity of artists to capture so much of later Rhapsodies in a single image, including the specific turning of Achilles’ head as a nod to the transformation and evolution of his character.

On this point Gregory Nagy noted the capacity of visual art to capture thousands of frames in a single image observing how Achilles himself can be visualized in different ways. Other themes relating to the character included Achilles’ status as an athlete and his role in chariot performance.

Analogies were also made between the classical paintings and epic on the one hand and movie adaptation of a good book on the other.

Participants also highlighted the importance of Patroklos in the narrative and Iliad through his depictions and prominence in visual images. Related to this discussion was an acknowledgment of the importance of psūkhē. Gregory Nagy pointed out how it is quite apt that psūkhē is as complex in visual art as it is in verbal art.

Recorded in Spring 2021 during v15 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 7 & 8, and the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v15 Office Hours 05 | Odysseus, Noos and Nostos

Topics include: Odysseus as trickster, and where even in the Odyssey he gets ‘bad press’ including the episode with the Cyclops; how the absence of the story about atrocities at the end of the Trojan War draws attention to Odysseus’ behavior; the contrast with Achilles and our ambivalence about Odysseus’ mētis; Odysseus’ behavior in the Embassy scene in Iliad; encoding of messages in the Cretan lies; Odysseus’ inappropriate behavior as the guest at a feast; the relationship between nóos and nostos in episodes of the Odyssey including the journey with the Phaeacians to Ithaca; the encounter with Elpenor in Hades; the bag of winds from Aiolos; Odysseus’ sleeping and waking.

Mentioned in the discussion:

Paul Radin. 1956. The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology. New York.

Jar (pelike) with Odysseus and Elpenor in the Underworld, the Lykaon Painter, about 440 BCE:
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/153840

Recorded in Spring 2021 during v15 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 9 and 10, and the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v15 Office Hours 06 | Completeness or Incompleteness of the Odyssey

Discussion about how complete—or not—the ending of the Odyssey felt. Relevant scenes discussed in view of this question included the final reunion between Odysseus and his father, Laertes. Gregory Nagy acknowledged that the scene was fitting for a sense of completeness since Odysseus’ relationship with father is more intimate than his relationship with Penelope given the status of his father as an ancestor and the corresponding need for the identity of a hero to be defined by genealogy. The garden setting of the final reunion also seemed to be a fitting tribute to the totality of Mother Earth.

Participants also considered how there seems to be an abrupt transition from the Iliad to the Odyssey. Professor Nagy pointed out that while the transition may be abrupt, the Odyssey spends time filling in the missing pieces. By the time the reader finishes with the Odyssey they have a fuller picture of the Trojan War as a totality.

Other topics explored this week included the various versions and stories that the character of Odysseus appears in. Comparisons to Indic epic tradition were made as well as a singular reference to a version of Odyssey that contains Cyclopes as master sailors of the Mediterranean who chase Odysseus in search of revenge.

Mentioned in this discussion:

Gregory Nagy: “A Cretan Odyssey, Part 1,” Classical Inquiries 2015.09.17
https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/a-cretan-odyssey-part-1/
Gregory Nagy: “A Cretan Odyssey, Part 2,” Classical Inquiries 2015.09.24
https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/a-cretan-odyssey-part-2/
Note: the essay was published in its entirety in Oral Tradition 31/1 (2017) 3–50
https://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/31i/nagy

Olga Levaniouk. 2011. Eve of the Festival: Making Myth in Odyssey 19. Hellenic Studies Series 46. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Levaniouk.Eve_of_the_Festival.2011

Andrew T. Alwine: “The Non-Homeric Cyclops in the Homeric Odyssey”
https://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/view/1181

Recorded in Spring 2021 during v15 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hour 11, and the Discussion Question.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v15 Office Hours 07 | Right, Wrong, and Everything In Between

Discussion on questions of right and wrong–as opposed to justice and injustice—in Homeric poetry. Scenes discussed in relation to this question included the passage of disguised Odysseus, the blinding of Cyclops, and the idealized depiction of a king in relation to the character of Penelope. Participants and panelists also explored the question of right and wrong vis-à-vis the framework of ainos—those who are qualified, understand what is right from wrong.

Other questions examined this week included the utility of reading Herodotus to understand the role of heroes in the Odyssey and the Iliad. Certain terms such as dikē were paid close attention to and the way such words help us understand different scenes. Gregory Nagy also highlighted the importance of the song culture for Ancient Greek civilization—very different and unlike our world today.

Recorded in Spring 2021 during v15 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 12 and 13, and the Discussion Questions.

With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v15 Office Hours 08 | Gardens, and Transformations

Discussion about the role of gardens in Odyssey 24 and transformations of characters in view of hero cults. In particular, participants explored the role of Antikleia in Laertes’ decision to seclude himself in his garden. Members also considered the significance of the name Odysseus uses when introducing himself to Laertes. On the subject of gardens, Gregory Nagy pointed out how the garden of Laertes can be envisioned as an orchard, vineyard, or any other vegetative setting that can be a form of exuberant self expression. Other subjects invoked the character of Pausanias and his potential transformation during initiation into hero cult. Participants questioned whether we have other sources about initiation beyond those present in the text considered. Discussion also turned to the character’s mental/emotional state, and the significance of travel as a motif and special language. Gregory Nagy pointed out how this particular literary tool is almost unique to the character of Pausanias.

Mentioned in the discussion:

Brian W. Breed. “Odysseus Back Home and Back From the Dead,” in Miriam Carlisle and Olga Levaniouk, editors. 1999. Nine Essays on Homer. pages 137–164

Pierre Ellinger. 2005. La Fin des maux. D’un Pausanias à l’autre.
https://www.lesbelleslettres.com/livre/1209-la-fin-des-maux-d-un-pausanias-a-l-autre

Recorded in Spring 2021 during v15 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 14 and 15, and the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v15 Office Hours 09 | A Changing World and Furies

Discussion about the nature and status of the Oresteia of Aeschylus, Homeric poetry, and Furies. Gregory Nagy cautioned against treating Homeric poetry as overly textual since in the 5th century BCE, Athenian state theater was the primary medium for education of the body politic (understood as the audience). If we try not to think textually, theater, especially tragedy, emerges as the key medium. However variants of myth can be more closely comparable to the circulating ‘texts’ of the time. On this point, the character of Euripides as an anthropologist collecting different tales comes to be quite important.

Participants also explored the role of Furies and whose side they are on. Gregory Nagy notes how it doesn’t matter since they have to be superseded by a sense of justice that typifies the city-state. Thus, when it comes to Athena’s offer, they do not really have a choice but to comply. The three tragedies are the etiologies of the new world. Participants note how Furies serve as fuel for vendetta but the agents for this vendetta are the human characters.

Recorded in Spring 2021 during v15 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 16 and 17, and the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v15 Office Hours 10 | Ancestral Customs and Heroic Pollution in Ancient Greek Civilization

Discussion about the many facets of Greek life from ancestral customs to heroic pollution, beginning with a focus on the role of ancestral customs in self-expression and an especially sublime way of self-expression. Gregory Nagy pointed out how the art of tragedy is often art that supersedes the art of epic as public education and remains one of the greatest symbols of golden age of Athens

Discussion also turned to the theme of ‘mystery’ in the Ancient Greek epic not the way we understood the term today, but the notion of connection. Gregory Nagy pointed out how, if you’re part of the community writ large you connect—that’s what a mystery is. It’s not being mystified as we understand it, but being connected.

Gregory Nagy also pointed out how Greek civilization 101 can be understand as all civilization is local. Trying to connect one variant with another is also a fundamental tenet. Indeed, connectedness of myth and ritual is so local, if you’re an Athenian, the first point of connection is your deme—dēmos for people.

The discussion also turned to the significance of heroic pollution being purified. Scenes speaking to this process of purification include Agamemnon killing his daughter and the end of the Odyssey. In general, Gregory Nagy notes that certain levels of violence in the heroic world have to be processed in addition to be relived evoking the notion of ‘miasma.’ Participants also considered heroes who are extreme—not necessarily in the negative sense. One example of this may be Agamemnon, also one of Gregory Nagy’s favorite villains, who nonetheless must have a lot of positive things about him if he was to feature so strongly in the city-state of Argos.

Recorded in Spring 2021 during v15 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 18 and 19, and the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v15 Office Hours 11 | Cult Heroes, Kleos, and Myrtles

Discussion covering a wide range of topics from the role of female characters and goddesses to the significance of botanical plants. Participants explored the role of Phaedra as a cult hero in her own right and whether the kleos of Phaedra is to be remembered. Discussion also turned to the coupling between Phaedra and Aphrodite, and Aphrodite and Artemis. Gregory Nagy noted, how, if we were to shoot Aphrodite and Artemis through time we would find that we cannot really separate them. One has to have the two interacting so that the antagonism of this doomed couple, Phaedra and Hippoytus, becomes almost necessary. Gregory Nagy also pointed out how the character of Artemis can be said to cover practically all womanly functions in life except sex—which Aphrodite comes to cover and represent.

Discussion also turned to the significance of the myrtle and its symbolic relation to the ritual of the young girls. Participants explored botanical facts of this plant where a scratching or pricking of a leaf of a myrtle bush gives off a very strong aroma that corresponds to the aroma of the blossom itself. This makes the Phaedra observation by Pausanias so much more meaningful. Phaedra may not enjoy seeing the blossom but by pricking the leaf she gets the aroma each time.

Finally, conversation also turned to the tragedy of Euripides and whether the kleos of Achilles is similar to the kleos of Pentheus. Participants explored the significance of these two characters’ names as well as an understanding of kleos as what is seen as well as what is heard. The significance of visual art and vase paintings is an important component of ancient world’s understanding of myth, affirming the symbiotic relation between visual and verbal art.

Mentioned in the discussion:

Classical Inquiries: https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/
Now being updated and continued at Classical Continuum:
https://continuum.fas.harvard.edu/

Recorded in Spring 2021 during v15 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 20 and 21, and the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.

HeroesX v15 Office Hours 12 | Socrates and The Greek Heroes

In this discussion, participants compared Socrates with epic heroes. Achilles was a prime example, for his ability in dialogue. Participants also considered the way dikē would be understood by Plato and in Homeric and Hesiodic poetry. Another hero to be compared with Socrates is Odysseus, but there is Odysseus’ craftiness as well as his craft, and he can also be compared with another culture hero, Palamedes. Discussion turned to theōriā and heroes, Theseus as the civic model for the cult hero in the state of Athens, and Socrates exemplifying a new model of theōriā.

Gregory Nagy and the team considered additional passages that could be used as examples of heroes as saviors, including Hippolytus and Phaedra, Menelaos speaking about Nestor, the whole of Iliad and Odyssey, and words as saviors.

Mentioned in this discussion:

Richard P. Martin. 1989. The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad. Online at the Center for Hellenic Studies.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Martin.The_Language_of_Heroes.1989

Aristotle fragment: quoted in Demetrius of Phaleron Libro de Elocutione (‘On Style’) 3.144

“The myth of Ēr” in Plato Republic, 10.614b–10.621d available on Perseus, starting here:
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168%3Abook%3D10%3Asection%3D614b

Recorded in Spring 2021 during v15 of the MOOC, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 22, 23 and 24, and the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, Hélène Emeriaud, Janet M Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott.