"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
"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
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
We were pleased to welcome Jeffrey Rusten of Cornell University, Department of Classics, for an Open House discussion about Zeus in Comedy. In preparation you might like to read the suggested passages from the Iliad, Aristophanes Plutus, and Lucian. Read more
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
