Author Archives: WhyHomer

What are your thoughts on Calypso? One of the passages I worked on recently was Calypso’s final speech to Odysseus. There’s something equal parts chilling and poignant about her. On the one hand, she is keeping Odysseus hostage. She offers him unending pleasure, ageless youth, eternity, but he does not want any of it. HeContinue reading “Homer’s Calypso”

The more time I spend translating Penelope’s speech and scenes, the more “heroic” she seems to become—possessing superhuman strength, pursuing fame, potentially being the recipient of cult honors. It makes me wonder what she meant to the historical women of archaic and classical Athens. Three potential clues might be 1) the existence of women cultContinue reading “A Penelopiad”

Did Achilles have a choice? In Iliad 9, Achilles famously reveals that two options are available to him: either he can remain in Troy, die in battle, and be immortalized, or he can return home and live a long but unremarkable life. The debate over whether he actually has control is one of those deliciousContinue reading “Ajax and Achilles”

I’ve had Edith Hamilton’s “The Greek Way” on my bookshelf for a few years. The first time I tried to read it, I was a bit put off by her East-West binary, which feels anachronistic and oversimplified. But the book will inevitably be a product of its time, as we all are, to some extent,Continue reading “Book review: “The Greek Way” by Edith Hamilton”

What happens to the gods in the age of empire? This week, I’ve been reading David Raeburn’s translation of Metamorphoses by Ovid, arguably the most influential ancient myth retelling on modern myth retellings. To clarify, I’m not challenging the view that, overall, Homer remains the most influential ancient poet. But as far as how mythologyContinue reading “Gods in the age of Empire”

Shall we talk about Helen of Sparta? This Roman relief, believed to be based on Greek models and dating anywhere from 100 BC- 100, depicts Aphrodite, Eros, and Peitho (goddess of Persuasion) overseeing the meeting between Helen and Paris. In both Greek and Roman mythologies, Helen’s birth follows sexual violence. In Ovid, she is bornContinue reading “Helen in Greek and Roman Mythologies”

Over the last month, I’ve been slow-reading Coleman Barks’ collection of Rumi’s verse about love. Also during this time (surely inspired by Barks), I’ve been challenging myself to translate favorite passages from Homer and render them into self-contained moments. Helen at her loom in Iliad 3. Odysseus’ encounter with Ino in Odyssey 5. Any sceneContinue reading “Reading poetry, translating poetry”

What is the opposite of vengeance? Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Euripides’ Orestes seem to engage this question via the narrative of Orestes, with what seem to be quite different results. Oresteia and Orestes were produced 50 years apart, in 458 and 408 BC respectively, at very different periods in Athenian history. Athens in 458 was ascending,Continue reading “Aeschylus & Euripides: Vengeance, Justice, Pity”

How do we study something through fragmentary and partial remains? This latent question seems to pester scholars of antiquity like the horsefly sent to trouble Io. It seems also to animate Anne Carson’s method in “Eros the bittersweet,” a study of Eros and eros in ancient Greek poetry and philosophy and of the scholar studyingContinue reading “Book review: “Eros the bittersweet” by Anne Carson”