Odysseus

Book Club: Cretan Lies

Our next Book Club selections explore the Cretan Lies of Odysseus. Our readings are: Odyssey books 13, 14, and 19, with particular focus on these passages: Athena 13.250–370 Eumaios 14.185–530 Penelope 19.163–348 Olga Levaniouk: Eve of the Festival, Chapter 1 ‘Beginning of the Dialogue: Setting up the Third Cretan Lie’ Classical Inquiries post by Gregory Nagy: A Cretan Odyssey, Part I We will meet for a live conversation via Google+… Read more

A Most Dangerous Sea and the Beauteous Scarf

~ A guest post by Bill Moulton ~ Below is one of the pivotal scenes in Odysseus’ long journey home. He is near drowning on a storm-tossed sea. [It was as though the South, North, East, and West winds were all playing battledore and shuttlecock with it at once.] When he was in this plight, sweet-stepping Ino daughter of Kadmos, also called Leukothea, saw him. She had formerly been a… Read more

Homeric Greek | Odyssey 1.44–62: Athena, Odysseus, and longing for home

We are pleased to share the latest video in the series on reading Homeric epic. In this episode Gregory Nagy (Harvard), Leonard Muellner (Brandeis), and Douglas Frame (CHS) read, translate, and discuss Odyssey 1.44–62 in an accessible and informal way. Specific topics of discussion include: the phrase γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη (sometimes translated as “grey-eyed Athena”) the mind of Odysseus and the heart of Athena associations between Kalypso and death the cosmic… Read more

Open House | The Children of Odysseus, with Joel Christensen

We were pleased to welcome Professor Joel Christensen (University of Texas, San Antonio) who returned for our first 2015 Open House discussion, when we discussed the children of Odysseus, and multiformity in myth. To prepare for the discussion, participants might like to follow these links to posts in Sententiae Antiquae: Odysseus’ Children: Fourteen and Counting! The Sons of Odysseus, Part 1: Evidence from Hesiod, Eustathius and Dionysus of Halicarnassos The… Read more

Oinops and Oxen

~ A guest post by Sarah Scott & Jacqui Donlon and the Oinops Study Group ~ …and aboard each vessel crowded full Arcadian companies skilled in war. Agamemnon himself, the lord of men had given them those well-benched ships to plow the wine-dark sea, since works of the sea meant nothing to those landsmen.  Iliad II [1] We had seen in ‘Oinops and the Wide Open Sea’ that most of the… Read more