"Oh to clasp your tender limbs, a mother’s fondest [most philos] joy! Oh to breathe your fragrant breath! ... Kiss your mother now for the last time, nestle to her that bore you, twine your arms about my neck and join your lips to mine!" Recent Book Club discussion prompted me to think about how human emotions were depicted in some of the readings from Greek antiquity. Read more
"In an epic text, how were poets able to represent emotion? How can we understand today their way of speaking? Did Achilles “copy” the behavior of warriors from those distant times? Or might it be the reverse: did the epic influence certain real behaviors?" Our Book Club selection for April is taken from Hélène Monsacré: The Tears of Achilles, newly available online at CHS in an English translation. Read more
I highly recommend that you make your way to the Onassis Cultural Center in New York, which is running an exhibit called “A World of Emotion: Ancient Greece 700BC–200AD,” through June 24, 2017. It brings together works of high art and emotion, such as the full-sized statue of Eros stringing his bow, as well as everyday items such as defixioi (curse tablets)—lead sheets with imprecations written on them, pierced by… Read more
