~ A guest post by Sarah Scott ~ As some of you know, Jack Vaughan and I have been reading the Old English poem Beowulf together, using the same slow reading techniques and discussions that we have been used to in HeroesX and Hour 25 [= Kosmos Society]. Recently we were looking at a passage in which a poet tells a story, and of course it brought to mind the… Read more
We were pleased to welcome David Elmer of Harvard University to discuss ‘epaineîn and the Poetics of Consent in Homer’. To prepare for the discussion, David Elmer suggested participants might like to read the following focus passages: Iliad 1.9–25 Iliad 3.455–461 through Iliad 4.1–67 Iliad 18.249–313 Iliad 23.532–542 Iliad 24.723–776 These passages, with additional key terms, are included in the following PDF file for reference: Open House David Elmer-Focus Passages (PDF)… Read more
We were pleased to welcome Efimia D. Karakantza (University of Patras, Greece), and Justin Arft (University of Missouri) for an Open House discussion: ‘Within the Kyklos: Whose plan is this? Divine plans and poetic narrative in the Iliad and Odyssey’. This open discussion took place within the Kyklos, the intergenerational project of the CHS focusing on the Greek Epic Cycle and its interface with other genres, namely the Homeric Epics.… Read more
~ A guest post by Jenna Cole ~ While thinking about oinops in the course of our word study, one passage stood out as unusual because oinops appears in one published edition of the Greek Iliad text but not in another. For Scroll I, line 350, Chicago Homer, which is based on the 1902 Oxford edition by D.B. Munro, gives this: θῖν’ ἔφ’ ἁλὸς πολιῆς, ὁρόων ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον: But… Read more
We were pleased to welcome Kevin McGrath, Associate in the Department of South Asian Studies at Harvard University, to discuss how charioteering and charioteers are emblematic—if not signal—of warrior song and culture in the Mahābhārata. Our discussion included reference to focus passages from the Iliad and Mahābhārata noted below, as well as McGrath’s article on Kṛṣṇa in Mahābhārata. Focus Passages & Scholarship Iliad 2. 545ff Iliad 4. 297ff Iliad 5. 239ff… Read more