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Odysseus is put ashore in Ithaca Theodor van Thulden Fair nymph! if fame or honor were To be attained with ease, Then would I come and rest with thee, And leave such toils as these. But here it dwells, and here must I With danger seek it forth : To spend the time luxuriously Becomes […]
Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus by John William Waterhouse (1891) Picture source When Circe had detained me more than a year There near Gaeta, before it had that name Aeneas gave it, and I parted from her, Not fondness for my son, nor any claim Of reverence for my father, nor love I owed […]
Nausicaa by Frederick Leighton (1878) Picture source Gerty smiled assent and bit her lip. A delicate pink crept into her pretty cheek but she was determined to let them see so she just lifted her skirt a little but just enough and took good aim and gave the ball a jolly good kick and it […]
I’m not much on academic-type studies, but Brian Boyd’s On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction looks interesting. From the product description: Art is a specifically human adaptation, Boyd argues. It offers tangible advantages for human survival, and it derives from play, itself an adaptation widespread among more intelligent animals. More particularly, our […]
Penelope Unraveling Her Web Joseph Wright of Derby Picture source A god could easily bring someone home from a long way off, if he wanted to. But I’d prefer to go through many hardships and then see the day when I got back and reached my home, than to complete my trip only to be […]
Marble seated harp player Cycladic, late Early Cycladic I–Early Cycladic II, ca. 2800–2700 B.C. Picture source While my thoughts constantly change on what direction I want this site to go, the one thing I have kept in mind of late is that I want my discussions to benefit someone approaching a work for the first […]
Odysseus’ travels Muse, speak to me now of that resourceful man who wandered far and wide after ravaging the sacred citadel of Troy. He came to see many people’s cities, where he learned their customs, while on the sea his spirit suffered many torments, as he fought to save his life and lead his comrades […]
Book 8, lines 245-253 in a Greek manuscript of the late fifth or early sixth century AD Picture source Generations of men are like the leaves. In winter, winds blow them down to earth, but then, when spring season comes again, the budding wood grows more. And so with men— one generation grows, another dies […]
This is a partial review of Alessandro Baricco’s An Iliad (translated by Ann Goldstein)—partial because I could not finish it. The book does raise interesting questions (more about his choices, but some about the original work). I’ll outline Baricco’s introduction and end note (in slightly different order than he presented them) and then go into […]
Andromache mourning Hector Jacques-Louis David “Revere the gods, Achilles! Pity me in my own right, Remember your own father! I deserve more pity… I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before— I put to my lips the hands of the man who killed my son.” Book XXIV, lines 588 – 591 […]