I present you a new Play, which they call “Epidicazomenos,” in Greek: in the Latin, he calls it “Phormio;” because the person that acts the principal part is Phormio, a Parasite, through whom, principally, the plot will be carried on from the Prologue, translated by Henry Thomas Riley For October, we come to our second play of the year: Phormio (“The Scheming Parasite”) by Terence. The Encyclopedia Britannica[1] says that… Read more
In part 1, we looked at dreams as represented in Homeric epic. In part 2, we continue our exploration with some passages from other texts. Starting with tragedy, we learn from Jean Alaux Lectures Tragiques d’Homère that “According to Jacques Jouanna, there are two types of dreams: the vision-dream which offers the sleeper a symbol to decipher … and the visitation–dream where a god or a messenger or a ghost… Read more
Old man Knemon hates everyone! A grouch to one and all! Grumpy all day long! Our September Book Club selection is a comedy by Menander, The Grouch [Dyskolos], also known as The Difficult Man, The Bad-Tempered Man, The Misanthrope, The Curmudgeon or The Peevish Fellow in different translations. Menander (c 342–291 BCE) was a major New Comedy playwright from Athens. In a thirty-year career he wrote over 100 plays, but won only… Read more
To make a light-hearted start to the new year, this month’s Book Club selection is a Roman comedy by Plautus, Rudens, “the Rope”. As usual, the conversation will start and continue in the Forum, with Google Hangouts on Tuesday, January 29, 2019, at 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. EST. You can read any translation you like. Here are a couple that are available free online: Translation by Cleveland K. Chase… Read more
We were pleased to welcome Jeffrey Rusten of Cornell University, Department of Classics for an Open House discussion about Zeus in Comedy. In preparation, you might like to read: Iliad 14.153–360, 15.1–235, 16.419–461, 22.157–187 Aristophanes Plutus (“Wealth”) lines 33–144 and 1019–1190 Passages from Lucian (PDF) You can watch the event in the frame below, or on our YouTube channel. You can join the discussion in the forum. For further videos please visit the Watch… Read more