Homer

Open House | Teaching and Learning the Greek Classics in Prison, with Laura Slatkin

We were excited to welcome back Laura Slatkin for an Open House entitled “Teaching and Learning the Greek Classics in Prison.” The event took place on Friday, January 22 at 11:00 a.m. EST and was recorded. In preparation for this event, you might like to read these passages. You can find the passages in the Sourcebook. Iliad: Rhapsody 16 lines 823–867, and Rhapsody 22 lines 90–166. Libation Bearers 881–930 You… Read more

Open House | The Narrative Form of the Odyssey, with Kevin McGrath

We were excited to welcome Kevin McGrath for an Open House entitled “The Narrative Form of the Odyssey.” The event took place on Friday, August 14 at 11:00 a.m. EDT and was recorded. To get ready for the event you can read the passages below from the Homeric Odyssey which are also included in the first of the two handouts, “Moral Odysseus”: Handouts: Moral Odysseus (PDF) Homeric Odysseus (PDF) You… Read more

Marriage | Part 1: Music

In this post we are going to examine some aspects of marriage, and its music which come traditionally with singing and dancing. In today’s marriages music, singing and dancing play an essential role in rituals and traditions. Music is played at the beginning of the ceremony, carefully chosen songs are sung during the ceremony, and people dance and sing during the feast. Were rituals and traditions related to music in… Read more

Book Club | April 2020: Barker/Christensen Homer’s Thebes

The city of Thebes has always been of interest to scholars working within mythographical and literary traditions, precisely because its presence looms large in our corpus of extant textual and especially non-textual sources. Looming even larger is the absence of a monumental epic to encapsulate its story in the manner that the Iliad and Odyssey do for the Troy story. Myths set in Thebes or involving Theban characters occupy a… Read more

Open House | Homer’s Thebes: Epic Rivalries and the Appropriation of Mythical Pasts, with Joel Christensen

We were excited to welcome Joel Christensen for an Open House. The title of the discussion is “Homer’s Thebes: Epic Rivalries and the Appropriation of Mythical Pasts,” based on his research and collaboration with Elton T. E. Barker. The event took place on Friday, March 6 at 11:00 a.m. EST. It was live-streamed and recorded. In preparation, you might like to read Iliad 4.1–421 and Odyssey 11.225–332, as well as… Read more