At this time of year our thoughts often turn to food and drink, so we start our exploration of the topic in Homeric and Hesiodic poetry. Where does their food come from? What kinds of foods does the poetry represent? How is it prepared and served? There is evidence for herd animals being reared. For example, in the Odyssey Eumaios mentions the flocks on Ithaca and its neighbors: There are… 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
~ A guest post by Sarah Scott and the Oinops Study Group ~ In our initial discussions we concentrated on the Homeric epics and identified some of the themes that appear in our focus passages. When we viewed together the main subjects surrounding the words appearing with oinops, pontos, ‘sea’, and bous, ‘ox’, we started to see a connection with seasonality (see ‘Oinops and Oxen’), so we decided to look in… Read more