Finding Helen in texts is frustrating. Many contradictory facts may be encountered. Who was Helen? What about her life, her power, her birth, her beauty? Was she hated or was she loved? If we were to write a short biography, it might read like this: Helen was the daughter of Leda and Tyndareus/Zeus, and Clytemnestra, Castor and Polydeuces’ sister. Penelope was her cousin. She married Menelaos king of Sparta,… Read more
~A guest post by Jacqui Donlon and the Oinops Study Group~ “Yea, and if some god shall wreck me in the wine-dark deep, even so I will endure… For already have I suffered full much, and much have I toiled in perils of waves and war.” The Odyssey v (George Chapman translation)[1] Dear friends, we started out on our journey with this quote (see “The Wine-dark Sea“), and… Read more
We were pleased to welcome Ioanna Papadopoulou for an Open House discussion with members of the community. Dr. Papadopoulou is the E.U. Fellow in Multi-Disciplinary Research/IT and Publications at the Center for Hellenic Studies and an Associate at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (PHI/ Groupe de Philosophie ancienne et médiévale). She guided a discussion on “Odyssey or the Return of a Song.” with reference to the following brief but important… Read more
Follow-up conversation with Professor Gregory Nagy (Harvard University) and Douglas Frame The community was very excited to welcome back Professor Gregory Nagy and Douglas Frame. You may watch the video below or on our YouTube channel. Several strands came up throughout the conversation, but here are some of the main topics: Twins seen through the prism of Indo-European vs Near Eastern traditions, and Nestor [1:51] Patroklos as the therapōn of… Read more
|524 This is how [houtōs] we [= I, Phoenix] learned it, the glories [klea] of men [andrōn] of an earlier time [prosthen], |525 who were heroes [hērōes], whenever one of them was overcome by tempestuous anger. |526 They could be persuaded by way of gifts and could be swayed by words. |527 I totally recall [me-mnē-mai] how this was done—it happened a long time ago, it is not something new—… Read more