Tagged: Homer

Dana Gioa on Epic

December 7, 2011 at 11:14 am

No epic survived the welter of history unless both its language and story were unforgettable. From a plot posterity demands both immediate pleasure and enduring moral significance. An epic narrative must vividly and unforgettably embody the central values of a civilization — be they military valor or spiritual redemption. Only a few poets at a […]

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Six Quotes: Esposito on Homer

October 12, 2011 at 10:21 am

“Isn’t it amazing that the first major work of western civilization — Gilgamesh — depicts the destruction of a human city?” “Menelaus is about to kill Helen, but (smart lady), she bares her breast to him, and he throws his sword down. Some things never change.” “Calypso’s name means concealment and while Odysseus is with […]

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Analects of the Core: Homer on the gods’ attention to Telemakhos

October 5, 2011 at 4:16 pm

“Reason and heart will give you words, Telemakhos; and a spirit will counsel others. I should say the gods were never indifferent to your life.” – Homer, from The Odyssey Book III, lines 31-33. Translation by Robert Fitzgerald.

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On Misreading Homer and Finding the Divine in Coffee

March 24, 2011 at 12:52 pm

Next month’s issue of the New York Review of Books features Gary Wills’ biting condemnation of the effort of Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly to reconcile modern nihilism in their new book All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age.  The problem is not that the book is […]

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