Skip to content

Studium I-II: Greek and Latin Literature in translation.

I. Ancient Literature: Epic literature in English translation.

Number of hours in the 10-week session :

40 hours, divided as follows:

-25 hours of lectures/discussions

-15 hours of tutorials

15h30-17h.30 Mon and Friday, plus two hours of comp/rhetoric/week.

 

Course Objectives:

· Analysis of richness of the origins, language, imagery, scope, structure and function of epic literature.

Topics:

· Function of Greek tragedy as a public event – a ‘liturgy’. Connection to rites of Dionysus.

· Thematic and formal aspects: Mimesis and catharsis, Aristotelian unities, etc.

· How did the Greeks view these epics? Aristotle explains.

· Homer and foundational myth; Hesiod and creation myth.

Know the gods: Greek and Roman.

· Homeric religion and the religious values of tragedies

· Comedy vs Tragedy: a comparative study.

Method :

-Close readings of texts, with prescribed homework reading from week to week.

-Analysis in class.

Resources:

-Cultural prehistory: Introduction to Intellectual and Cultural History (HE Barnes, chaps 1 and 2; pdf)

Library of Greco-Roman texts (Tufts/Perseus; alt translations and, supplemental reading/lectures and additional texts below on this page)

Bibliography :

Content Timeline (Post-Parietal)

THE CLASSICAL PERIOD (1200 BCE – 455 CE)

1. HOMERIC or HEROIC PERIOD (1200-800 BCE) Greek legends are passed along orally, including Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey. This is a chaotic period of warrior-prince wandering sea-traders, and fierce pirates.

2. CLASSICAL GREEK PERIOD (800-200 BCE) Greek writers and philosophers such as Gorgias, Aesop. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Euripides, and Sophocles. The fifth century (499-400 BCE) in particular is renowned as The Golden Age of Greece. This is the sophisticated period of the polis, or individual City-State, and early democracy. Some of the world’s finest art, poetry, drama, architecture, and philosophy originate in Athens.

3. CLASSICAL ROMAN PERIOD (200 BCE-455 CE) Greece’s culture gives way to Roman power when Rome conquers Greece in 146 CE. The Roman Republic was traditionally founded in 509 BCE, but it is limited in size until later. Playwrights of this time include Plautus and Terence. After nearly 500 years as a Republic, Rome slides into dictatorship under Julius Caesar and finally into a monarchial empire under Caesar Augustus in 27 CE. This later period is known as the Roman Imperial period. Roman writers include Ovid, Horace, and Virgil. Roman philosophers include Marcus Aurelius and Lucretius. Roman rhetoricians include Cicero and Quintilian.

4. PATRISTIC PERIOD (c. 70 CE-455 CE) Early Christian writings appear such as Saint Augustine, Tertullian, Saint Cyprian, Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, Boethius. This is the period in which Saint Jerome first compiles the Bible, when Christianity spread across Europe, and the Western Roman Empire suffered its dying convulsions. In this period, barbarians attack Rome in 410 CE and the city finally falls to them completely in 455 CE. In the East, the Empire continues for another millennium.


Understanding the nature of epic ‘literature’.

Types: foundational epic and creation epic.

Read The Epic: Genres and Characteristics (Ford, Princeton).

Parietal ‘literature’: The epics attributed to Homer are a mere 2500-3000 years old. Were there prehistoric “epics”?

Maybe. A cave+a fire+a hunting tale recited aloud might = an epic of sorts. In the Orthodox tradition, icons are ‘written’ not painted.

Is that true in the cases of these parietal ‘epics’? Some notes from The Met.

A 2019 survey in Nature magazine:

Humans seem to have an adaptive predisposition for inventing, telling and consuming stories. Prehistoric cave art provides the most direct insight that we have into the earliest storytelling, in the form of narrative compositions or ‘scenes’ that feature clear figurative depictions of sets of figures in spatial proximity to each other, and from which one can infer actions taking place among the figures. — from “Earliest hunting scene in prehistoric art”: Aubert, M., Lebe, R., Oktaviana, A.A. et al. Nature (2019) doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1806-y

And cave symbols from 70,000 years ago.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (W. Herzog) on DVD from instructor.

Prehistoric art to language: Alison George, New Scientist: In search of the very first coded symbols.

‘Battling rhinos’ and other examples of prehistoric art, without much relevant context (Judith Thurmond, New Yorker). [pdf]

Pictographic material from 12,000 BC, from Artnet.

Genevieve von Petzinger in Wired magazine.

⇒ Read her thesis in pdf here.

Cave art and myth:

An interpretation of cave paintings as “pictures”, non-literary art:


2. Epic literature in translation

· An introduction to the epic literary mode of expression beginning with “paleoliterature” to Gilgamesh, through the ancient Greeks, then through Roman Literature. Items here marked with an asterisk should be read before the first class meeting.

Greek Literature: The general introduction to this topic by Richard Claverhouse Jebb, taken from the pages of the Britannica 11, and edited for student use, will be found here. *

Latin Literature: The general introduction to this topic, also from the Britannica, is here. *

Themes, motifs and style in Homer, with discussions of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes et al.

Epic poetry, related to heroic poetry, is a narrative art form common to many ancient and modern societies. In some traditional circles, the term epic poetry is restricted to the Greek poet Homer’s works The Iliad and The Odyssey and, sometimes grudgingly, the Roman poet Virgil’s The Aeneid. However, beginning with the Greek philosopher Aristotle who collected “barbarian epic poems,” other scholars have recognized that similarly structured forms of poetry occur in many other cultures.

Two related forms of narrative poetry of this era are “trickster tales” that report activities of very clever disrupter beings, human and god-like both; and “heroic epics,” in which the heroes are ruling class, kings and the like. In epic poetry, the hero is an extraordinary but also an ordinary human being and although he may be flawed, he is always brave and valorous.

Characteristics of Epic Poetry* 

The characteristics of the Greek tradition of epic poetry are long-established and summarized below. Almost all of these characteristics can be found in epic poetry from societies well outside of the Greek or Roman world.

The content of an epic poem always includes the glorious deeds of heroes (Klea andron in Greek), but not just those types of things—for example, the Iliad included cattle raids as well as contests.

This wiki entry proposes seven basic characteristics:

  1. The hero is outstanding. He (as a rule, a male protagonist) might be important, and historically or legendarily significant.
  2. The setting is large. It covers many nations, or the known world.
  3. The action is made of deeds of great valour or requiring superhuman courage.  
  4. Supernatural forces—gods, angels, demons—insert themselves in the action.
  5. It is written in a very special style (verse as opposed to prose).
  6. The poet tries to remain objective.
  7. Epic poems are believed to be supernatural and real by the hero and other principal characters. They often feature a transformative descent into an underworld.

All About the Hero *

There is always an underlying ethos that says that to be a hero is to always be the best person he (or she, but mainly he) can be, pre-eminent beyond all others, primarily physical and displayed in battle. In Greek epic tales, intellect is plain common sense, there are never tactical tricks or strategic ploys, but instead, the hero succeeds because of great valor, and the brave man never retreats.

Homer’s greatest poems are about the “heroic age“, about the men who fought at Thebes and Troy (a. 1275–1175 BCE), events that took place about 400 years before Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other cultures’ epic poems involve a similarly distant historic/legendary past.

The powers of the heroes of epic poetry are human-based: the heroes are normal human beings who are cast on a large scale, and although gods are everywhere, they only act to support or in some cases thwart the hero. The tale has a believed historicity, which is to say the narrator is assumed to be the mouthpiece of the goddesses of poetry, the Muses, with no clear line between history and fantasy.

Narrator and Function

The tales are told in a mannerly composition: they are often formulaic in structure, with repeated conventions and phrases. Epic poetry is performed, either the bard sings or chants the poem and he is often accompanied by others who act out the scenes. In Greek and Latin epic poetry, the meter is strictly dactylic hexameter; and the normal assumption is that epic poetry is long, taking hours or even days to perform.

The narrator has both objectivity and formality, he is seen by the audience as a pure narrator, who speaks in the third person and the past tense. The poet is thus the custodian of the past. In Greek society, the poets were itinerant who traveled throughout the region performing at festivals, rites of passage like funerals or weddings, or other ceremonies.

The poem has a social function, to please or entertain or educate and inspire an audience. It is both serious and moral in tone but it doesn’t preach. Source: Hatto AT, editor. 1980. Traditions of Heroic and Epic Poetry. London: Modern Humanities Research Association.

Homer narrated the deeds of men and women: the gods, though present, represent an enrichment and augmentation of the human action, not the epics’ principal focus. A mixed mode of narrative and quoted speech or dialogue allowed the actors themselves to express their thoughts and emotions, set against the action, background information, and occasional authorial comments of the narrative. The narrative is selective: not the Trojan War, but the wrath of Achilles, covering a short period tightly focused on his withdrawal from the war, the ruin it caused for both sides, and his return to battle and to humanity; not the adventures of the returning Greeks, but the sufferings of one man, Odysseus, until his reunion with his wife and son. The epics also pose essential questions concerning the meaning of human life and achievement, the place of suffering and death, and the morality of action. — from A Companion to Western Historical Thought (Kramer and Maza), chapter 2.


The ancient world in context

Pre-Homeric Literature: lectures and texts

Gilgamesh: Full-text version

Lecture: Prof Andrew George (SOAS)—Introduction to Gilgamesh

Read this Introduction to the Yale version by Morris Jastrow


3. Homer—Background:

The world before the war in Troy and the end of the ‘Heroic’ Age, one of Hesiod’s five ‘ages’:

The Five Ages of Man According to Hesiod’s Works and Days (see ML pp. 81-83)

    1. Golden Age: mortals who live as gods, free from pain, sorrow and trouble
    2. Silver Age: where “a child was a child for 100 years”; men were foolish, and committed crimes against each other
    3. Bronze Age: men were violent and warlike, and destroyed each other
    4. Age of Heroes: men were demigods, but always engaged in war
    5. Iron Age: the worst – men are constantly beset by troubles, grow old quickly , and are always opposing one another (source: washington.edu)

Cf. Ovid’s Four Ages at Met. pp. 3-8 (briefly mentioned in ML p. 81)

The Luwians and the Late Bronze Age Collapse:

Paul MM Cooper:

More on the Bronze Age Collapse:

Also:

Eric Kline on the Bronze-Age Collapse (ca 1200BC)

Introductory comments:

The British Museum Trojan War page: The ‘myth’ of the Trojan War and The Search for Troy.

The story of the ancient city of Troy, and of the great war that was fought over it, has been told for some 3,000 years. Spread by travelling storytellers, it was cast into powerful words by the Greek poet Homer as early as the eighth to seventh century BC – and into powerful images by ancient Greek and Roman artists. Just as it enraptured audiences in the past, it still speaks to us today and it’s easy to see why. It’s a story that has it all – love and loss, courage and passion, violence and vengeance, triumph and tragedy – on a truly epic scale.

Spanning several decades, the tale is set in Greece’s mythical past. At its heart is the powerful city of Troy on the western coast of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), besieged for 10 years by the Greeks, who sailed across the Aegean Sea to take revenge for a grave insult – the abduction of a woman. This ancient world war features a stellar cast of characters. Even the gods are involved.

But this isn’t a straightforward tale of right and wrong. Its heroes – and none more so than the great Achilles – are complex, with heroic strength but human weaknesses and in the end it is unclear who, if anyone, really wins.


Meeting 4:

Homer—Intro lecture:

Theatre of Epidavros, Argolis, Greece

@pallisd on Instagram

Why Homer Matters: Hay Festival lecture by Adam Nicholson:

Texts:

The Iliad (Butler trans) (txt ver)

Reading Homer aloud (CHS);

S Lombardo reading his translation:

The rhythm of the Iliad:

Manuscript history: The story of Venetus A:

 

⇒ Critical background:

Readings:

Nagy: On Metonymy and The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours

Friedrich Nietzsche: On Competition. Word of the day: agon. (Related notes here.)

Homer as historian:

S. Freud and the ‘Question of Homer‘ by D. Nobus.

Giambattista Vico’s ‘oral-evolutionary theory‘ of Homeric authorship. (link; reading: Book III)

E. Hall: The Reception of Ancient Greek Literature and Western Identity (pdf)

S. Weil: The Iliad or the Poem of Force (pdf)

Christopher Benfey: A Tale of Two Iliads (pdf; subject: Weil and Bespaloff)

A short note on kleos via ThoughtCo.

Vocabulary: Kleos (eternal glory, fame), nostos (homecoming, heroic return), Ponos (toil, ordeal, pain) aidos (shame), agon (contest, ordeal).

Depending on context, adjectives in -os (masc.), may be given with other endings:

-ê (fem.),-on (neut.),-oi (masc. pl.),-ai (fem. pl.), -a (neut. pl.).


  1. agathos good, noble
  2. agôn, pl. agônes coming together; contest; agony; ordeal; trial
  3. agorâ, pl. agorai public assembly, place of public assembly
  4. aidôs shame, sense of shame; sense of respect for others; honorableness
  5. ainos authoritative utterance for and by a social group; praise; fable; ainigma riddle
  6. aitios responsible, guilty; aitiâ responsibility, guilt; cause, case
  7. akhos grief, public expression of grief by way of lamentation or keening
  8. alêthês (adjective) true, true things; alêtheia (noun) truth
  9. aretê striving for a noble goal, for high ideals; noble goal, high ideals
  10. aristos best, superlative of agathos; aristeia: designates the hero’s great epic moments that demonstrate his being aristos
  11. atê, pl. atai veering, aberration, derangement; disaster; punishment for disaster
  12. âthlos (aethlos) contest, ordeal; âthlêtês athlete
  13. biâ (biê in the language of Homeric poetry) force, violence
  14. daimôn, pl. daimones supernatural force (= unspecified god or hero) intervening in human life; eudaimôniâ state of being blessed with a good daimôn
  15. dêmos, pl. dêmoi district, population of a district; community
  16. dikê, pl. dikai judgment (short-range); justice (long-range); dikaios just
  17. ekhthros enemy [within the community], non-philos
  18. epos, pl. epea utterance, poetic utterance
  19. eris strife, conflict
  20. esthlos genuine, good, noble; synonym of agathos
  21. genos stock (“breeding”); generating [of something or someone]; generation
  22. hêrôs, pl. hêrôes hero
  23. hêsukhos serene; hêsukhiâ state of being hêsukhos
  24. hieros sacred, holy
  25. hôrâ, pl. hôrai season, seasonality; time; timeliness
  26. hubris outrage (etc.)
  27. kakos bad, evil, base, worthless, ignoble; kakotês state of being kakos; debasement
  28. kerdos, pl. kerdea gain, profit; desire for gain; craft employed for gain; craftiness
  29. kharis, pl. kharites reciprocity, give-and-take, reciprocal relationship; initiation of reciprocal relationship; the pleasure or beauty derived from reciprocity, from a reciprocal relationship; gratification; grace, gracefulness; favor, favorableness
  30. khoros chorus = group of singers/dancers
  31. kleos, pl. klea glory, fame (especially as conferred by poetry); that which is heard
  32. koros being satiated; being insatiable
  33. kosmos arrangement, order, law and order, the social order, the universal order
  34. krînô sort out, separate, decide, judge
  35. lussa rage, fury, frenzy. This word id related to lukos wolf, so the image is one of wolf-like rage.
  36. mantis seer, prophet
  37. mênis supernatural anger
  38. menos power, life-force, activation (divinely infused into cosmic forces, like fire and wind, or into heroes); a partial synonym of thûmos; a partial synonym of mênis
  39. mêtis artifice, stratagem, cunning intelligence. A second meaning, used in the episode of Odysseus and the Cyclops, is nobody.
  40. moira, pl. moirai plot of land; portion; lot in life, fate, destiny
  41. mûthos special speech; special utterance; myth
  42. nemesis the process whereby everyone gets what he or she deserves
  43. nomos, pl. nomoi local custom; customary law; law
  44. noos: designates realm of consciousness, of rational functions; intuition, perception; principle that reintegrates thûmos (or menos) and psukhê after death
  45. nostos return, homecoming; song about homecoming; return to light and life
  46. oikos house, abode; resting place of cult hero; family line; verb oikeô have an abode
  47. olbios blessed, blissful; fortunate’; olbos bliss (pictured as material security)
  48. paskhô suffer, experience, be treated [badly or well]; pathos suffering, experience
  49. penthos grief, public expression of grief by way of lamentation or keening
  50. philos friend (noun); dear, near-and-dear, belonging to self (adjective); philotês or philiâ the state of being philos
  51. phrên, pl. phrenes: physical localization of the thûmos
  52. polis city, city-state
  53. ponos ordeal, labor, pain
  54. pontos sea (crossing)
  55. psukhê, pl. psukhai: synonym of thûmos (or menos) at the moment of death; essence of life while one is alive; conveyor of identity while one is dead
  56. sêma, pl. sêmata sign, signal, symbol; tomb’; sêmainô (verb) indicate, use a sêma
  57. sophos skilled, skilled in understanding special language; sophiâ being sophos
  58. sôphrôn balanced, with equilibrium, moderate; sôphrosunê being sôphrôn
  59. sôtêr savior (either bringing to safety or, mystically, bringing back to life); sôtêriâ safety, salvation; sôzô (verb) save; be a sôtêr (for someone)
  60. stasis division in a group; strife; division [= part of an organization, like a chorus]
  61. telos coming full circle, rounding out, fulfillment, completion, ending, end; successfully passing through an ordeal; ritual, rite
  62. themis, pl. themistes something divinely ordained
  63. therapôn, pl. therapontes attendant, minister; ritual substitute
  64. thûmos: designates realm of consciousness, of rational and emotional functions
  65. tîmê, pl. tîmai honor; honor paid to a supernatural force by way of cult
  66. turannos, pl. turannoi (Lydian word for king): king (from the viewpoint of most Greek dynasties); unconstitutional ruler (from the viewpoint of Greek democracy)
  67. xenos, pl. xenoi stranger who should be treated like a guest by a host, or like a host by a guest; xeniâ reciprocal relationship between xenoi; when the rules of xeniâ do not work, a xenos risks defaulting to the status of simply a stranger. (source: GH Gutchess)

Iliad, Odyssey, general notes (Douglas Frame):

Historical background:

Mira and Troy: https://www.livescience.com/60629-ancient-inscription-trojan-prince-sea-people.html


Topic: How the Greeks thought and believed (continued)

 

Background: Five Stages of Greek Religion by Gilbert Murray (esp Ch 2)

⇒ Auerbach

Auerbach on mimesis

Auerbach and mimesis (Arthur Krystal)

⇒ Veyne:

Wiebe on Paul Veyne

Music

The Hurrian Hymn (ca 1400 BC): BBC comment

 

 

Readings and supplemental: Music in Ancient Greece (via Aeon); ‘Sights an sounds of ancient ritual‘ (via Wall St Journal, pdf); the soundtrack to Greek theatre — aulos and kithara. First,  the aulos:

 

…and the kithara:

 

An ensemble:

 

Hurrian Hymn no. 6′: The ‘oldest’ known melody (1400BC):

For more on archaeomusicology: www.emaproject.eu, Michael Levy’s ancient lyre blog, Richard Dumbrill’s academia.edu page.


The Topography and Geography of Troy (film lecture)


Go to Iliad in outline here.


Introduction to the Odyssey

Background readings:

Dimock: The Name of Odysseus (pdf): What’s in it?

Fried:   On Auerbach (see above), Ansatzpunkt and reading in context (pdf)

Iterations of Homer’s Odyssey:

Butler’s translation, via MIT. Power and Nagy (from Butler via Perseus/Tufts U). General comment:

James Joyce’s version of Ulysses.

An adaptation for Americans (O Brother; clips below)

Another way of repurposing Homer, this one by Derek Walcott (from “Omeros”):

https://youtu.be/hQupJNRE3b0

…and of course see also notes on the Aeneid, below.


The Argonautica of Apollonius

Argonauticasynopsis and commentary

Texts:

The Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius (Seaton trans)

Hunter translation (pdf)

Reading: West: “Odyssey and Argonautica” (Classical Quarterly)

Background: Argonautica of Appolonius Rodius (Link: etext from Gutenberg)

APOLLONIUS RHODIUS was born about B.C. 235, in the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, either at Alexandria, or at Naucratis. Strabo is in favour of the former, while Athenaeus and Elian declare for the latter place. He appears to have given himself up at an early age to literary pursuits, and his choice is scarcely to be wondered at when we reflect upon the age in which he lived and the literary atmosphere in which he found himself. We are not expressly told whether it was choice or necessity that led him to select the career he did, but from the fact that the leading poet of that day took the young aspirant in hand and instructed him in his art, we may fairly infer that Apollonius was a man of some standing and position in life. His studies, however, under his master Callimachus were not destined to do either pupil or teacher much credit; no doubt he obtained some technical skill in his art, but the tastes of Callimachus and Apollonius were so diametrically opposed that the two poets quarrelled, and allowed their professional jealousy to go to such lengths that Apollonius lampooned the style of his teacher, while Callimachus was weak enough to retaliate in a studied retort under the title of  ‘Ibis,’ the character of which poem, though lost to us, may be gathered from Ovid’s poem of the same name. Callimachus was the leading exponent of the strained and artificial poetry of his day.

Apollonius, with more true artistic instinct, revolted from the want of reality characteristic of most of his contemporaries, and having a genuine admiration for the straightforward simplicity of the Epic age, set himself to imitate Homer. Naturally he made many enemies among the host of poetasters who took their cue from the animosity shown to him by the “Laureate ” of the Alexandrine court. Hence, when the “Argonautica” appeared, it was at once condemned as violating the accepted canons of style and composition, and partly, perhaps, owing to certain youthful crudities which were afterwards corrected. Great was the chagrin of the young poet at the reception of his work, and fierce was his anger against Callimachus. The position of the latter, however, was unassailable, and so Apollonius, after a fruitless wordy warfare, determined to seek some new opening for his genius. Accordingly he bade farewell to ungrateful Alexandria, and retired to Rhodes, then the second great seat of literature, taking his poem with him. Possibly experience had taught him wherein his poem was deficient. At any rate, he revised the whole of it; and now, free from the cabals of jealous rivals, he received a fair verdict, and at once rose to fame. So popular, indeed, did he become on the reading of his poem, that the Rhodians, it is said, rewarded him with extraordinary honours, and conferred their franchise upon him. From this incident in his career he came to be called “the Rhodian,” a name which has clung to him for ever. It was only natural that in his hour of triumph he should long to have his merit acknowledged in his native city-in Alexandria, the gathering place of the old world’s declining literature and art. Thither, therefore, he came, with his honours upon him, and whether it was that Callimachus and his followers were out of favour, or whether the Alexandrines had relented towards their illused poet, certain it is that he attained to great celebrity, and was advanced to valuable posts of trust. Henceforth he could afford to rest upon his hardly-won laurels, his period of ” Sturm und Drang ” was over; he had passed through the fire, and it had done him no hurt-weighed in the balance he had not been found wanting. Of his life henceforth we learn but little, beyond what Suidas tells us as to his having become librarian in the vast royal museum at Alexandria, about B.c. 194. It may well be that this was so; for the Ptblemies, in whose reigns Apollonius lived and wrote, were monarchs not unlikely to bestow such an important literary post upon a man of marked ability and studious habits. Assuming that Suidas is correct in his statement, we find plenty of internal evidence in the poem to suggest that the writer must have been a man of vast erudition, or have had at his command extensive stores of knowledge from which to draw his materials. During this period of his life the poet was not idle. Imbued to some extent with the spirit of his age, he produced works at a great pace; epigrams, grammars, and the so-called KΤΙΣΕΙΣ, i.e. poems on the origin and foundation of towns, but all these are lost to us save a few mutilated fragments and stray lines preserved in other writers. In the library at Alexandria he remained until his death in B.C. 181, happy enough, no doubt, amongst the endless treasures of that vast repository of art and learning. Of his work that has come down to us, too little notice has been taken by English scholars; for though his style at times bears too evident traces of laboured study, the structure of his poem is simple and straightforward. The mind is not burdened by a multiplicity of episodes, the descriptions are singularly beautiful, and the similes, which are abundant and varied, show the hand of a master, who, if he did sometimes imitate, had at least something graceful of his own to add to what he borrowed, and not infrequently paid back his loan with interest. The work found numerous commentators in ancient times, to whom we are indebted for the Florentine and Parisian Scholia. Moreover, Apollonius was very popular among the Romans; so much so that his poem was translated by Publius Terentius Varro Atacinus, and was imitated by Valerius Flaccus and many others.

Two two-part docs:

 

‘Feelings’ in early literature (jpg)


Reading/lecture: Greeks and Romans: literary influence across languages and ethnicities (G.O. Hutchinson)

Reading/lecture: Early Greek Comedy and Satyr Plays (Mark Damen)

ReadingThe Theatre etc., by Charles Hastings. Through page 87.


The Homeric Hymns

Introductory comments:

Notes: (from U Cal Press – S Raynor book notes) The Homeric Hymns have survived for two and a half millennia because of their captivating stories, beautiful language, and religious significance. Well before the advent of writing in Greece, they were performed by traveling bards at religious events, competitions, banquets, and festivals. These thirty-four poems invoking and celebrating the gods of ancient Greece raise questions that humanity still struggles with—questions about our place among others and in the world.

Known as “Homeric” because they were composed in the same meter, dialect, and style as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, these hymns were created to be sung aloud. In this superb translation by Diane J. Rayor, which deftly combines accuracy and poetry, the ancient music of the hymns comes alive for the modern reader. Here is the birth of Apollo, god of prophecy, healing, and music and founder of Delphi, the most famous oracular shrine in ancient Greece. Here is Zeus, inflicting upon Aphrodite her own mighty power to cause gods to mate with humans, and here is Demeter rescuing her daughter Persephone from the underworld and initiating the rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

This updated edition incorporates twenty-eight new lines in the first Hymn to Dionysos, along with expanded notes, a new preface, and an enhanced bibliography. With her introduction and notes, Rayor places the hymns in their historical and aesthetic context, providing the information needed to read, interpret, and fully appreciate these literary windows on an ancient world. As introductions to the Greek gods, entrancing stories, exquisite poetry, and early literary records of key religious rituals and sites, the Homeric Hymns should be read by any student of mythology, classical literature, ancient religion, women in antiquity, or the Greek language.

  1. Homeric Hymn to Apollo, with notes. (3)
  2. Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite  (5)

Greek History-as-literature:

Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War (pdf)

Thucydides as literature of war: “Thucydides’ Moral Chaos” (TLS)

Herodotus and Thucydides: “The rest is history” (Guardian)

Herodotus: The Histories (pdf)

A mini-course on Herodotus from Open University

Greek literature: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Hesiod, et al.


Course portal.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *
*
*