Zeus

Divine Gifts

"The herald came near, bringing with him a singer, very trusted, whom the Muse loved exceedingly. She gave him both a good thing and a bad thing. For she took away from him his eyes but gave him the sweetness of song." The gifts of the gods are ambiguous and double-edged. Read more

Divine Deceiver: Hermes in the Homeric Hymns

"I will swear a great oath by my father’s head and vow that neither am I guilty [aitios] myself, neither have I seen any other thief [klopos] of your cows —whatever cows may be; for I know them only by hearsay [kleos].” Following the recent posts "Divine Doppelgänger: Hermes and Odysseus" and “The Divine Doublet: Odysseus and Hermes," I became intrigued to learn more about Hermes as deceiver, as portrayed… Read more

Core Vocab: mētis

Following on from our discussion of biā / biē it seems natural to continue with another, contrasting Core Vocab word: mētis [μῆτις] glossed by Gregory Nagy as ‘artifice, stratagem, cunning intelligence’. It's a word I immediately associate with Odysseus, and in particular his cunning ploy with the Cyclops. But to which other heroes, and in what contexts, does it also appear? Read more

Book Club | September 2017: Aristophanes Plutus

What an unhappy fate, great gods, to be the slave of a fool! A servant may give the best of advice, but if his master does not follow it, [5] the poor slave must inevitably have his share in the disaster; for fortune does not allow him to dispose of his own body, it belongs to his master who has bought it. Read more