nostos

Visiting Scholars

Transcript: nostos, Names, and the Younger Generation of Heroes | Open House, with Gregory Nagy

We were pleased to welcome Gregory Nagy, and Allie Marbry, for another Open House session, discussing questions from the community. Following last week's conversation, and in conjunction with the readings of the Book Club, our discussion topics included questions from the community about some of the issues that emerged from those conversations. This event is available only in transcription, as a PDF handout. Read more

Topic for Discussion

In Focus: Odyssey 1, lines 1–10

|1 That man, tell me O Muse the song of that man, that versatile [polu-tropos] man, who in very many ways |2 veered from his path and wandered off far and wide, after he had destroyed the sacred citadel of Troy. |3 Many different cities of many different people did he see, getting to know different ways of thinking [noos]. Read more

Topic for Discussion

Community Discussion: Fostering Civil Dialogue

In this clip Professor Nagy responds to a question about whether or not heroes can hope to achieve something that is beyond their portion or fate [huper moiran]. Nagy argues that within the ancient Greek song culture, the poetic phrase "beyond fate" can be equivalent to saying something is "beyond tradition." This idea becomes especially clear when Achilles and Aeneas, "two men who were by far the best," face off… Read more

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Nestor and Indo-European Twin Myths, with Douglas Frame

We were pleased to welcome classicist Douglas Frame to talk about the role of Nestor in the Homeric poems with members of the community. Together they also discuss absent signifiers, nostos, and Indo-European twin myths. Read more