Odyssey

Eurycleia and Anticleia

~ A guest post by Laura Ford ~ Continuing our look at the etymology of proper names, it is interesting that the two women who jointly raised Odysseus have very similar names: Eurycleia means “broad fame,” and Anticleia means “opposing fame.” Do their names constitute a clue concerning their respective attitudes towards Odysseus’ quest for kleos by joining the expedition to Troy? Eurycleia was Odysseus’ wet nurse and the one… Read more

Open House | The Odyssey, Kingship, and Nestor, with Gregory Nagy and Guests

We were delighted to welcome Professor Gregory Nagy (Harvard University) with his guests Professor Leonard Muellner (Brandeis University) and Douglas Frame, for an Open House Discussion. You can watch the recording below (or on our YouTube channel), and scroll down to see a summary of the main themes discussed and links to works referenced during the discussion: We had been invited to post questions ahead of this week’s visit and… Read more

In Focus: Odyssey 1, lines 1–10

|1 That man, tell me O Muse the song of that man, that versatile [polu-tropos] man, who in very many ways |2 veered from his path and wandered off far and wide, after he had destroyed the sacred citadel of Troy. |3 Many different cities of many different people did he see, getting to know different ways of thinking [noos]. |4 Many were the pains [algea] he suffered in his… Read more

Under discussion: “That Man!”

~ 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

Book Club | May 2014: Homer’s Versicolored Fabric

The Hour 25’s Book Club selections for May are: Chapter 1 of Anna Bonifazi’s Homer’s Versicolored Fabric: Evocative Power of Ancient Greek Epic Word-Making. Scrolls 1–4 of the Homeric Odyssey, from the H24H Sourcebook. Live discussions will take place at: May 21st at 1pm EDT, via Google+ Hangout May 28th at 2pm EDT in the Project Chatroom And you can join in discussion on the Book Club Forum thread and… Read more