In this series inviting exploration of the Core Vocabulary terms from The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours[1] it seems fitting for this community to look at the word kosmos [κόσμος] which is glossed as ‘arrangement, order, law and order, the social order, the universal order; cosmic order, orderliness of costume, hairdo; orderliness of group or society, of cosmos, of song; ritual adornments’. There is also a related verb, kosmeîn… Read more
A guest post by Sarah Scott This month I’ve chosen as our Core Vocab word (from The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours (H24H)[1] and the Sourcebook[2]) menos [μένος] ‘power, life-force, activation’ (divinely infused into cosmic forces, like fire and wind, or into heroes); a partial synonym of thūmos; a partial synonym of mēnis‘. As a reminder of those other words: thūmos is defined as ‘heart, spirit’ (designates realm of consciousness,… Read more
A guest post by Sarah Scott The Core Vocab word for this month, taken from those terms listed in Gregory Nagy’s The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours[1] and related Sourcebook[2], is oikos [οἶκος] ‘house, dwelling, abode; resting place of cult hero; family line’; verb oikeîn [οἰκεῖν] ‘have a dwelling’ Sometimes it simply means a house or home, as in this speech of Agamemnon during his argument with Khrysēs about the… Read more
A guest post by Sarah Scott This month I have chosen for a Core Vocab exploration terms that we hold close to our hearts: philos ‘friend’ (noun); ‘dear, near-and-dear, belonging to self’ (adjective); philotēs or philiā ‘the state of being philos’ In H24H[1] Professor Nagy first introduces the term in connection to a passage where Phoenix tells a story in his attempt to convince Achilles to accept Agamemnon’s gifts and… Read more
A guest post by Sarah Scott This month’s Core Vocab word—from Gregory Nagy’s book The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours[1]—is kerdos [κέρδος], plural kerdea [κέρδεα] which he glosses as ‘gain, profit; desire for gain; craft employed for gain; craftiness; craft’. I wondered in what contexts the word might occur—and whether the ancient Greeks saw it as a positive or negative attribute, or something in between. Here are a few… Read more