Departure of Ulysses from the Land of the Phaeacians, Louvre Museum Douglas Frame attended a conference hosted by the Center for Odyssean Studies in August of 2017. The topic of his presentation was the “homecoming” of Odysseus, concentrating on “nostos as taking place in a wholly imaginary world.” The notion of a nostos as a “return to life” is deeply imbedded in the Odyssey. I have traced its origins to… Read more
We were pleased to welcome Justin Arft, University of Tennessee, for an Open House discussion entitled “A Cyclic Odysseus is a Dead Odysseus: Homer and the Epic Cycle on (Mis)Recognition.” It took place on Thursday, November 16, at 11:00 a.m. EST, and was recorded. In preparation, you might like to read the following passages from the Odyssey: Hermes recognizes Calypso: 5.44–80, especially 76–80 Penelope does not recognize Odysseus: 23.1–110, especially… Read more
[1] Anger [mēnis], goddess, sing it, of Achilles, son of Peleus— 2disastrous [oulomenē] anger that made countless pains [algea] for the Achaeans, 3 and many steadfast lives [psūkhai] it drove down to Hādēs, 4 heroes’ lives, but their bodies it made prizes for dogs [kuōn, pl.] [5] and for all birds, and the Will of Zeus was reaching its fulfillment [telos]. Iliad 1.1–5 In this very familiar passage we see the… Read more
We are pleased to share this segment in the series on reading Homeric epic in ancient Greek. In each installment we read, translate, and discuss a small passage in the original Greek in the most accessible way. If you’ve ever dreamed of reading Homer in the original, here is your chance to do so with teachers who have spent a lifetime thinking about this poetry. With their guidance even new… Read more
We were pleased to welcome back Douglas Frame, Senior Fellow of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies for an Open House event on April 20 at 11:00 a.m. EDT. You may like to read Odyssey Book 13.1–375 for this event. You can watch the recording in the frame below or on our You Tube channel. Mentioned in the discussion: Malkin, Irad. 1998. The Returns of Odysseus: Colonization and Ethnicity. University of California… Read more