How did the ancient Greeks view hair? There are many passages in which it is mentioned or described, and this series of blog posts will explore different aspects of how it is featured in some of the texts. In this first post, we are looking at physical descriptions of men’s hair. Right from the beginning of the Iliad we see the hair of Achilles featured as part of the action… Read more
Translation and notes by Jack Vaughan In this passage by Nonnos, Ariadne has been deserted on Naxos by the hero Theseus. As she lies on the lonely shore sleeping, she is discovered by the god Dionysus who transfigures the human woman into the goddess that defines Ariadne. 265 Bacchus [=Dionysus] now leaving Ilissos’ honey-sweet watercourse [in Attica], comes in joyous procession with his reveling troop to the vine-clad island of… Read more
~ A guest post by Sarah Scott and the Oinops Study Group ~ In our initial discussions we concentrated on the Homeric epics and identified some of the themes that appear in our focus passages. When we viewed together the main subjects surrounding the words appearing with oinops, pontos, ‘sea’, and bous, ‘ox’, we started to see a connection with seasonality (see ‘Oinops and Oxen’), so we decided to look in… Read more
~ Update ~ In addition to our original selection, for the discussion on September 5 we will also read Hymn 26, which is also to Dionysus. Here is a link to the English text: Homeric Hymn 26: to Dionysus Our next Book Club selections are the Homeric Hymns to Dionysus, Hymn numbers 1 and 7. You can find the English texts on Perseus: Homeric Hymn 1: to Dionysus Homeric Hymn… Read more