Reading Homer

Reading Homer

Homeric Greek |Odyssey 1.125–135: Receiving a guest, and seating arrangements

We are pleased to share this segment in the CHS 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. In this segment, Gregory Nagy, Leonard Muellner, and Douglas Frame read Odyssey 1.125–135. Topics include: what Telemachus does with Athena's spear, different types of seats and seating arrangements, a comparison of this… Read more

Reading Homer

Homeric Iliad 1.1–67

As you well know the first word of the poem, mēnis, indicates ‘anger’, as both Greg and Lenny have so carefully discussed. This first word establishes a tone or mode for the complete work as anger is exchanged through an economy of metaphors with violence, death, grief, lamentation, and ultimately with kleos itself as the final price of an heroic life: that is, the poetic medium of this narrative song.… Read more

Reading Homer

Homeric Greek | Odyssey 1.118–124: xeinos as stranger and as guest

We are pleased to share this segment in the Center for Hellenic Studies 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. In this segment, Gregory Nagy, Leonard Muellner, and Douglas Frame read Odyssey 1.118–124. Topics include: strangers and guests, the correct procedure and sequence of events when receiving a guest,… Read more

Reading Homer

Homeric Greek | Odyssey 1.113–117: Telemachus visualizing his father

We are pleased to share this segment in the Center for Hellenic Studies 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. In this segment, Gregory Nagy, Leonard Muellner, and Douglas Frame read Odyssey 1.113–117. Topics include: how Telemachus visualizes his father and the scattering of the suitors, expressing abstractions, Telemachus’… Read more

Reading Homer

Homeric Greek | Odyssey 1.99–112: Athena at the threshold

We are pleased to share this segment in the Center for Hellenic Studies 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. In this segment, Gregory Nagy, Leonard Muellner, and Douglas Frame read Odyssey 1.99–112. Topics include: dēmos in Homeric diction and dāmos in Linear B, the significance of Athena’s spear,… Read more