Performance of epic | Part 2: Rhapsodes
“Homeric poetry was performed at the Panathenaia by rhapsōidoi, ‘rhapsodes’ … The rhapsodes narrated the Iliad and Odyssey in relay, following traditions of rhapsodic sequencing: each rhapsode waited for his turn to pick up the narrative where the previous rhapsode left off.” In this post we share a selection of passages that describe the repertoire, performance, and skills of rhapsodes. Read more…
CHS Online Open House | Pindar’s Poetics of Homecoming, with Maša Ćulumović
We are pleased to welcome back Maša Ćulumović, CHS Fellow, as a guest for a discussion on Pindar’s Poetics of Homecoming. The event will take place on Thursday, November 15, at 11:00 a.m. EST, and will be recorded. Read more…
The Classic Ship | Part 3: The Battle of Salamis
“Each captain drove his ship straight against some other ship… When … our ships had been crowded in the narrows, … and each crashed its bronze prow against each of its own line, they splintered their whole bank of oars.” In 480 BCE, King Xerxes proceeded to Athens, after his victory at Thermopylae, and his naval forces moved southward for the final stroke. Athens, a young but powerful democracy, and Sparta, with its accomplished warriors focused on military training and excellence, found themselves fated to work together to break the Persian threat to Hellas. Read more…
Book Club | November 2018: Aeschylus Seven Against Thebes
“Seven warriors, fierce regiment-commanders, slaughtered a bull over a black shield, and then touching the bulls gore with their hands they swore an oath … that either they will level the city [polis] and sack the Kadmeians’ town [astu] by force [biā], or will in death smear this soil with their blood.” This month’s Book Club selection is the Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus. The discussion starts and continues in the forum, and there will be Google+ Hangouts on Tuesday November 27, at 5 a.m. EST and 11 a.m. EST. The links will be posted in the forum on the day. Read more…
Introducing Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes
We are pleased to share in the Text Library a revised version of Herbert Weir Smyth’s translation of Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes that tracks Core Vocab words from The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours in the same way as the associated Sourcebook. This was brought about by a community-driven collaborative “heroization” project. Read more…
CHS Online Open House | The Free First Thousand Years of Greek, with Leonard Muellner
We were pleased to welcome back Leonard Muellner, who introduced the features and plans for the CHS project entitled The Free First Thousand Years of Greek (FF1K). The FF1K comprises the texts attested in manuscript from the earliest antiquity up to the 3rd Century CE., with some later additions that are part of the “normal” corpus of texts that classical Greek and Latin includes, such as the marginal scholia for authors like Homer and Pindar, or Stobaeus (5th Century CE). The event took place on Thursday, November 1 at 11 a.m. EDT, and was recorded. Included in this post are links to the project and to related information. Read more…
