It is odd that a culture that seems to personify most natural features as deities has so few gods of the mountain peaks.There seem to be only ten mountains called “god.” Three of them, Helikon, Cithaeron, and Tmolus, have distinctive myths or personalities. Cithaeron and Tmolus are associated with Dionysus, Helikon more famously with Apollo and the Muses. These three mountains are also associated with musical contests. Read more
~ A guest post by Brian Prescott-Decie ~ In the course of searching for simple texts for a student of Latin who has been making rather heavy weather of Agricola, and needed some light relief, I recently came across the History of Apollonius, King of Tyre, a Latin… Read more
Fatal Attraction in that Michael Douglas-Glenn Close movie I understand. But fatal attraction in the Iliad? Frankly, I’ve found the idea hard to grasp, and some of the explanations in The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours prompt me to ask some additional questions. What is fatal attraction? How do we know it exists? What kind of attraction? And why would anyone be attracted to one’s killer? Read more
Apollo and Achilles are ritual antagonists. So how do we explain the strategic alliance Achilles forms with the god early in Iliad Scroll 1? The hero does this through Kalkhas, the seer who received his prophetic powers from Apollo. Read more
