Sappho

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Lesbian Prayer: Tradition and Innovation in Sappho with Professor Mary Bachvarova

We were delighted to welcome Professor Mary Bachvarova, Director of the First Year Experience, Lindsay and Corinne Stewart Professor in the Humanities, Classical Studies, Willamette University, who joined members of the Kosmos Society for an Open House discussion titled “Lesbian Prayer : Tradition and Innovation in Sappho.” In this talk Prof. Bachvarova uses Homeric and Near Eastern prayer to illustrate how Sappho innovates on her inherited Lesbian tradition of prayer.… Read more

Topic for Discussion

Emotions from Greek Antiquity

Recent Book Club discussion prompted me to think about how human emotions were depicted in some of the readings from Greek antiquity. In the Trojan Women, Andromache’s reaction to her son’s fate—death by being thrown out of the battlements—is not physical, a loud, wailing lament, but a subdued, courageous reaction. To get a proper burial for her son, she does not fight back vehemently when the child is taken. The… Read more

Gallery

The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours | Gallery: Part 1

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

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Homo ludens at play with the songs of Sappho: experiments in comparative reception theory, with Gregory Nagy

We were excited to welcome back Gregory Nagy of Harvard University, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature and the Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC. The topic of the discussion was “Homo ludens at play with the songs of Sappho: experiments in comparative reception theory.” The event was streamed live on Thursday, March 14, 2019, and was recorded. In preparation, you… 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