song

Core Vocab: nomos

Solon "was spending ten years abroad after having made laws [nomoi] for the Athenians ... the real reason was not to have to repeal any of the laws [nomoi] he had made. The Athenians could not do this on their own, having sworn by the strongest oaths to observe for ten years whatever laws [nomoi] Solon gave them." Our next Core Vocab term is nomos [νόμος], glossed in H24H and… Read more

Video—CHS Open House: Rhapsodes, Kitharôidia, and Performance in Ancient Greece, with Timothy Power

We were pleased to welcome Timothy Power (Rutgers University) for a CHS Open House discussion on 'Rhapsodes, Kitharôidia, and Performance in Ancient Greece'. This event was recorded and will be available soon. In connection with the event, you might like to read the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Timothy Power's book The Culture of Kitharôidia, available for free at CHS. Read more

Book Club | Albert B. Lord: The Singer of Tales

Our next Book Club selection features two selections from Albert B. Lord's The Singer of Tales: Chapter 2 'Singers: Performance and Training', and Chapter 5 'Songs and the Song'. This book, originally published in 1960, is based on research carried out in the former Yugoslavia by Milman Parry in the 1930s, which focused on how singers who learn songs in an oral tradition compose in performance. This provides valuable evidence… Read more

In Focus: Plato Ion 535b–c

Hold it right there. Tell me this, Ion—respond to what I ask without concealment. When you say well the epic verses and induce a feeling of bedazzlement [ekplēxis] for the spectators [theōmenoi]—...are you then in your right mind, or outside yourself? Read more