Secondhand book purchases made a few months ago:

Lysistrata: play where women withhold sex to force men to end war.

Acharnians: a farmer makes private peace in Peloponnesian War satire.

Clouds: satire of Socrates, sophistry, and education.

Later Caesars: Bios. of 3rd–4th c. Roman emperors, gossip-filled.

#books #greekliterature #romanempire

Turned in my laptop and employee badge today, got a week of rest before starting at my new place of work...

Oh? #Hades2 V1.0 releases next week? Guess I have some time to begin reading the classics.

Any translation recs for the Odyssey/Iliad? Preferably one that is easier to read and understand while still keeping some poetic integrity?

#askfedi #greekmythology #greekliterature

The Iliad Ancient Epic, Eternal Legacy – Myth, War & Humanity || Speeches N Stories

#theiliad #homer #epicpoem #trojanwar #achilles #hector #patroclus #odysseus #greekliterature #epictradition #TheIliad #HomerEpic #GreekMythology #TrojanWar #AncientEpics #ClassicalLiterature #Achilles #GreekLegends #EpicPoetry #SpeechesNStories #IliadExplained #MythAndWar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrqOAMpN2oU

The Iliad Ancient Epic, Eternal Legacy – Myth, War & Humanity || Speeches N Stories

#theiliad #homer #epicpoem #trojanwar #achilles #hector #patroclus #odysseus #greekliterature #epictradition #TheIliad #HomerEpic #GreekMythology #TrojanWar #AncientEpics #ClassicalLiterature #Achilles #GreekLegends #EpicPoetry #SpeechesNStories #IliadExplained #MythAndWar #HistoricalEpics #AncientGreece #TimelessStories #fatevsfreewill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrqOAMpN2oU

The Iliad Ancient Epic, Eternal Legacy – Myth, War & Humanity || Speeches N Stories

#theiliad #homer #epicpoem #trojanwar #achilles #hector #patroclus #odysseus #greekliterature #epictradition #TheIliad #HomerEpic #GreekMythology #TrojanWar #AncientEpics #ClassicalLiterature #Achilles #GreekLegends #EpicPoetry #SpeechesNStories #IliadExplained #MythAndWar #HistoricalEpics #AncientGreece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrqOAMpN2oU

The Iliad Ancient Epic, Eternal Legacy – Myth, War & Humanity || Speeches N Stories

#theiliad #homer #epicpoem #trojanwar #achilles #hector #patroclus #odysseus #greekliterature #epictradition #TheIliad #HomerEpic #GreekMythology #TrojanWar #AncientEpics #ClassicalLiterature #Achilles #GreekLegends #EpicPoetry #SpeechesNStories #IliadExplained #MythAndWar #HistoricalEpics #AncientGreece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrqOAMpN2oU

I spent a a good part of my formal (and informal) edumacation immersed in my studies of antiquity from both a history and a literary viewpoint. (Ἡ ἐμὴ ἀρχαία Ἑλληνικὴ γλῶττα παντάπασιν κακίστη ἐστίν.)

Sophocles' "Antigone" is one of my all-time favorite tragedies.

This Ian Crowe illustrated cover to what I understand is a recent translation is quite striking and horrific.

I wonder where the hell my plays in translation are? Hmmm. Must find them all.

#antigone #greekliterature #sophocles

Armand D'Angour's recent posting of a lyric of Anacreon (https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:c2i5hfc7ezyxfuhjt2a27f4y/post/3ltfcqpn2zc27) reminded me of reading a sepulchral epigram of Callimachus when I was a schoolboy:

Δωδεκέτη τὸν παῖδα πατὴρ ἀπέθηκε Φίλιππος ἐνθάδε, τὴν πολλὴν ἐλπίδα, Νικοτέλην

Here's a computer generated phonemic transcription:

dɔː.de.ké.tɛː tòn pâi̯.da pa.tɛ̀ːr a.pé.tʰɛː.ke pʰí.lip.pos en.tʰá.de, tɛ̀ːn pol.lɛ̀ːn el.pí.da ni.ko.té.lɛːn

Translation:

Here Philippos, a father, laid his twelve year old son, his great hope, Nikoteles.

As a teenager, I was struck by the elegant simplicity and pathos of these lines.

Decades later, as a parent, the pathos of the lines strikes me so much more deeply. I also feel a bond both with Philippos, separated as we are by oceans and millennia, and with my younger self, sensitive in adolescent way to the pathos, yet then unacquainted with the paternal emotions stirring that father's grief and disappointment. A triad of sensibility....

"Um, actually," I hear some reply guy ask, "are you sure that Philippos and his son even existed and that they're not just fictions created by Callimachus?"

I'm not sure, because I don't know enough about this literature, but I'm also not sure if anybody, even amongst classical scholars, knows for sure whether these two people had any material existence. I am sure, however, that their material existence or otherwise doesn't matter to me, because as characters, fictional or not, they are real to me; my triad of sensibility endures. But now we're wading into philosophy...

If you can't read the Greek, try your best with the phonemic transcription, so that you can hear the alliteration and repetition of the sound /p/ and that heartbreaking conclusion with the sound of the boy's name.

#Literature #Callimachus #GreekLiterature #Epigrams #Greek #Parenting #Fathers

Encore une petite difficulté technique : l'invitée n'était pas très audible au début... Mais l'émission est bien quand même (et il y a une devinette sur la page Web - toutes les personnes qui trouveront la réponse auront droit à une dédicace personnalisée dans une prochaine émission).

https://www.radiocampustours.com/emissions/i-love-mes-cheveux-la-litterature-grecque-contemporaine-et-pas-que-avec-lucile-arnoux-farnoux/

#Traduction #Radio #ILMC #Arnoux-Farnoux #GreekLiterature

Emily Wilson, a legend in her own right, reviews the latest book of Anne Carson, who is by now, basically a mythical figure (at least for some of us).
#literarycriticism #LiteraryTranslation #Literature #bookstodon #poetry #greekliterature #classics

https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/anne-carson-wrong-norma/