Follow the handsome advice that old Nautus gives: take chosen youth, and the bravest hearts, to Italy. In Latium you must subdue a tough race, harshly trained. Yet, first, go to the infernal halls of Dis, and in deep Avernus seek a meeting with me, my son. For impious Tartarus, with its sad shades, does not hold me, I live in Elysium, and the lovely gatherings of the blessed. Here… Read more
The March Book Club selection continues the theme of Roman texts. This month features a tragedy by Seneca: Phaedra, which is also sometimes referred to as Hippolytus. It is a treatment of the same myth with which many members will already be familiar, Euripides Hippolytus, so it might be interesting to make comparisons. You can read any translation you like. There is a free online translation by Frank Miller Justus:… Read more
After the gods had seen fit to destroy Asia’s power and Priam’s innocent people, and proud Ilium had fallen, and all of Neptune’s Troy breathed smoke from the soil, we were driven by the gods’ prophecies to search out distant exile, and deserted lands, and we built a fleet below Antandros and the peaks of Phrygian Ida, unsure where fate would carry us, or where we’d be allowed to settle,… Read more
But the god of the trident, who rules the ocean waters, grieved, with a father’s feelings, for the son changed into a swan, the bird of Phaethon, and, hating fierce Achilles, he nursed an excessive anger in his memory. (Ovid Metamorphoses 12.580–584) The Book Club selection for January is taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which will provide a Roman perspective of some stories and characters we have previously encountered in the ancient… Read more
We are excited to share the themes for the upcoming Book Club selections for the beginning of 2017, when we explore some selections from ancient Roman works. Look out for further announcements with details of the texts, and the related forum threads, nearer the time! Tuesday January 31: Ovid Metamorphoses Tuesday February 28: Virgil Aeneid Tuesday March 28: Seneca, tragedy There will also be CHS Open House discussions to tie… Read more