Homer

Book Club

Book Club | April 2019: Casey Dué Achilles Unbound

The Book Club readings for this month are from Casey Dué’s recent book, Achilles Unbound: Multiformity and Tradition in the Homeric Epics, which is available to read for free on the CHS website. https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Due.Achilles_Unbound.2018 We will all read the Introduction, and Chapter 1: ‘”Winged Words”: How We Came to Have Our Iliad‘. You can then also read as many other chapters as you wish. Discussion will start and continue in… Read more

Visiting Scholars

Open House | “And Then an Amazon Came:” Homeric Papyri, with Casey Dué

We were pleased to welcome back Casey Dué, University of Houston, for a discussion on Homeric papyri. This event was streamed live on Thursday, March 28th, 2019, at 11 a.m. EDT, and was recorded. In preparation for this event you might like to read the following passages, by following these links: The description of the Shield of Achilles in Iliad 18.463–610 The Proclus summaries of the Epic Cycle You may… Read more

Reading Homer

Homeric Greek | Odyssey 1.203–212: Are you really from Odysseus, big boy that you are?

We are pleased to share this segment in the series on reading Homeric epic in ancient Greek. In each installment we read, translate, and discuss a small passage in the original Greek in the most accessible way. If you’ve ever dreamed of reading Homer in the original, here is your chance to do so with teachers who have spent a lifetime thinking about this poetry. With their guidance even new… Read more

History,  Word Study

The Idealized Ship | Part 1: Curved, crowned, and garlanded

Both the Iliad and the Odyssey play a key role in our understanding of the ancient Greek ship, in her physical and her metonymic appearance. In this section we will consider the epithet korōnis [κορωνίς] that describes the form of the ancient Greek ship. The word in Greek that we translate as ‘form’ is ideā [ἰδέα]. There is also the word eidos [εἶδος]. In Plato there is no real difference… Read more

Reading Homer

Homeric Greek | Odyssey 1.194–202: Wild men holding Odysseus back

We are pleased to share this segment in the series on reading Homeric epic in ancient Greek. In each installment we read, translate, and discuss a small passage in the original Greek in the most accessible way. If you’ve ever dreamed of reading Homer in the original, here is your chance to do so with teachers who have spent a lifetime thinking about this poetry. With their guidance even new… Read more