~ A guest post by Janet Ozsolak ~ The active interaction among the bard, internal audience and the external audience in a Homeric performance intrigued me since Version 1 of the HeroesX project. I wondered how the external audience, in the 5th century BCE, processed such a complicated narrative (Homeric Iliad and Odyssey). How did they kept them near and dear to their song culture? How did they connect the… Read more
This [hēde] is the public presentation [apo-deixis] of the inquiry [historia] of Herodotus of Halikarnassos, with the purpose of bringing it about that whatever results from men may not, with the passage of time, become evanescent, and that great and wondrous deeds—some of them publicly performed [apo-deik-numai ] by Hellenes, others by barbarians—may not become akleā [= without kleos]. In particular [this apodeixis of this historiā concerns] why (= on account of what cause [aitiā]) they entered… Read more
We are pleased to share this video discussion with Gregory Nagy and Leonard Muellner about building content, conversation, and community around ancient Greek literature. Muellner and Nagy are joined by members Janet Ozsolak and Sarah Scott. Together they discuss how Hour 25 (now Kosmos Society) is an extension of the conversations Muellner, Nagy, and Douglas Frame began in the 1970s. They also begin to explore ways that our community might… Read more
We are happy to share the following archive of posts written by Leonard Muellner during the second session of HeroesX. Muellner is the Chair of the Board of Readers for HeroesX and Professor of Classical Studies at Brandeis University. He has been collaborating with Professor Gregory Nagy for over four decades. Post ID: Archive_HeroesXv2_LennyMuellner_1 Key Terms: song culture, kleos aphtiton, Milman Parry, Albert Lord Scroll 9 Iliad, modern oral traditions, Korea,… Read more
Leonard Muellner on Anchises, Aphrodite, and Zeus Our community recently (January 2014) welcomed Professor Leonard Muellner of Brandeis University to the community Chatroom. After the live chat, Professor Muellner joined us by video to share additional thoughts about his research on cosmic anger in ancient Greek epic. Together we raise and discuss several provocative questions such as: What do the names Anchises and Aeneas mean? What is the significance of… Read more