Phaedra

Gallery

The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours | Gallery: Part 5

The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours[1] is based on a course that Professor Gregory Nagy has been teaching at Harvard University since the late 1970s. The book discusses selected readings of texts, all translated from the original Greek into English. The texts include the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey; selected Homeric Hymns; the Hesiodic Theogony and Works and Days; selected songs of Sappho and Pindar; selections from the Histories of Herodotus;… Read more

Topic for Discussion,  Word Study

Hair, part 2 | Female hair: descriptions

But the mane [khaitā] of the other one, my kinswoman Hagesikhora, blossoms [epantheō] on her head like imperishable gold [khrusos]. … She is Hagesikhora. But whoever is second to Agido in beauty, let her be a Scythian horse running against a Lydian one. … It is true: all the royal purple 65 in the world cannot resist. No fancy snake-bracelet, made of pure gold, no headdress from Lydia, the kind… Read more

History,  Texts,  Topic for Discussion

Book Club Discussion Series | Seneca: Introductory Notes

In March 2017, the Book Club will be discussing Seneca’s Phaedra. This is the first of a series of posts which intend to illuminate the authors and works discussed as means of enriching the ongoing dialogue. A guest post by Georgia Strati Lucius Annaeus Seneca (known as Seneca the Younger) was, according to the standard biographical entries, a Roman philosopher, statesman, orator, and tragedian, living between c. 4 BCE (reign… Read more

Announcements

Community Reading: Seneca’s Phaedra

No rest by night, no deep slumber frees me from care. A malady feeds and grows within my heart, and it burns there hot as the stream that wells from Aetna’s caverns. Pallas’ loom stands idle and my task slips from my listless hands; no longer it pleases me to deck the temples with votive offerings, nor at the altars, midst bands of Athenian dames, to wave torches in witness… Read more

Book Club

Book Club | March 2017: Seneca Phaedra

The March Book Club selection continues the theme of Roman texts. This month features a tragedy by Seneca: Phaedra, which is also sometimes referred to as Hippolytus. It is a treatment of the same myth with which many members will already be familiar, Euripides Hippolytus, so it might be interesting to make comparisons. You can read any translation you like. There is a free online translation by Frank Miller Justus:… Read more