Guide to the Classics: Homer’s Odyssey
The Odyssey of Homer is a Greek epic poem that tells of the return journey of Odysseus to the island of Ithaca from the war at Troy, which Homer addressed in The Iliad.
Guide to the classics: Homer’s Iliad
Homer’s Iliad is usually thought of as the first work of European literature, and many would say, the greatest. It tells part of the saga of the city of Troy and the war that took place there.
New Releases: Ancient Books for the Holiday Season!
A few new releases for the historian on your shopping list!
Transgendering Clytemnestra
Many Greek tragedies have mysteriously evaded the controlling influence of time; they are read today with as much admiration and emotion as they would have inspired in their first audiences.
Dreams in Ancient Medicine
Dreams in Ancient Medicine Medicina Antiqua: University College London Along with many people before and since, most Greeks and Romans believed that dreams…
The use of the kidneys in secular and ritual practices according to ancient Greek and Byzantine texts
The use of the kidneys in secular and ritual practices according to ancient Greek and Byzantine texts Athanasios Diamandopoulos, Andreas Skarpelos, and Georgios…
Hector and Iliad VI
Homer?s Iliad is the tale of the ninth year of the Trojan War, narrating events in both the Trojan city and the Achaean camp. The work is grand in its scope and remains character driven; for this reason we still discuss Achilles, Odysseus, Hector, and Paris as if they were real people.
Monsters in the Roman Sky: Heaven and Earth in Manilius' Astronomica
The five-book astrological poem of Manilius, composed during the final years of Augustus
Homer and Oral Poetry
The recent discovery of the prominent role of the oral tradition in the Homeric texts does not, however, eliminate the role played by Homer; his inventiveness is a major part of what makes the epics shine.
The Menelaion: A Local Manifestation of a Pan-Hellenic Phenomenon
Sparta, the mythological birthplace and home of the Homeric heroine, was alleged to have worshiped her at two sites, at a shrine within the polis and at a shrine several kilometers outside the polis.8 We know very little about the former shrine, but the latter has been archaeologically attested; the partial walls and foundations of a fifth-century BCE monument to Helen of Sparta and her husband Menelaos, known as the Menelaion, have been recovered on a ridge near the west bank of the Eurotas.