Homeric Greek | Odyssey 1.230–238: Invisible man, skein of war and movable nu
In this segment Douglas Frame, Leonard Muellner, and Gregory Nagy discuss Odyssey 1.230–238. Topics include grieving over one who is missing in action; the concept of “blameless” as originating in the sacrificial language; a metaphor of ending (the war) as winding up a wool thread into a ball; and a discussion of the relation of movable nu and pauses at lines’ ends. Read more…
On the trail of the Minoan civilization: Crete, June 2019
My first port of call was Iraklio/Herakleion, the capital of Crete. The city’s top attraction is undoubtedly the Archaeological Museum, one of the greatest archaeological collections in the world, with pride of place going to the best Minoan artifacts. It is an excellent preparation for the visit to Knossos, the so-called Minos’s Palace which lies just outside the city. Read more…
Homeric Greek | Odyssey 1.221–229: What’s the feast? It’s not a potluck
In this segment Douglas Frame, Leonard Muellner, and Gregory Nagy read, translate, and discuss Odyssey 1.221–229. Topics include long-term and short-term genealogies; asyndeton as an expressive tool; a hubristic feast; Telemachus, son of Odysseus/son of Penelope; larger-than-life heroes. Read more…
The improvised craft
The Homeric Odyssey takes some time to describe to us the construction of an improvised craft that will carry Odysseus on an eighteen-day journey from Ogygia. The story tells how Kalypsō selects the trees. Odysseus then cuts the trees and axes them smooth. He bores holes in them. He configures them into a raft that is as wide “as the beam of a large vessel.” We compare the description of his skilled carpentry to the techniques and materials used during a recent reconstruction of the Akrotiri Thera ship. Read more…
Homeric Greek | Odyssey 1.213–220: Inspiring Telemachus
In this segment Douglas Frame, Leonard Muellner, and Gregory Nagy read, translate, and discuss Odyssey 1.213–220, focusing on the synchronic and diachronic etymologies and meanings of Telemachus’ epithet pepnumenos, “breathed-in.” Read more…
Reading Homeric poetry without a safety net
In this video Leonard Muellner, Gregory Nagy, and Douglas Frame talk about the experience of reading Homer together without doing any preparations, as a playful and open-minded activity. Over the coming weeks we will be sharing further segments of the Center for Hellenic Studies series in which they read, translate, and discuss passages from Homeric epic. Read more…
