We were delighted to welcome back Professor Joel Christensen, of Brandeis University, to join members of the Kosmos Society for an Open House discussion on “Violence and War Crimes in Iliad 6.” As Professor Christensen writes in his Substack post noted below: The story of excessive violence in the Iliad is that of the rejection of conventions meant to make war in some way predictable and ‘acceptable’ to the combatants.… Read more
We were excited to welcome Joel Christensen for an Open House entitled “Epic Narrative and Toxic Heroism.” The event took place on Friday, May 13 at 12:00 p.m. EDT and was recorded. To get ready for the event you might like to read: The Last Mythic Hero You can watch the video down below or on our YouTube channel. For further videos please visit the Watch page. Joel Christensen Joel… Read more
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
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
We were pleased to welcome Joel Christensen of Brandeis University, Department of Classics for an Open House discussion about Disability in Homer. It took place on Thursday, April 19, at 11:00 a.m. EDT, and was recorded. In preparation, you might like to read these focus passages (PDF handout): Beautiful Bodies or Beautiful Minds: Disability Studies in Homer—Readings Watch the recording on the screen below or on our YouTube channel For… Read more