Tag: classics
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Heraclitus Fragments
FragmentsHeraclitus A strange and beautiful little book collecting the surviving fragments of poetic writings of Heraclitus, a pre-socratic philosopher and poet. None of the fragments collected here are complete, so it difficult to under how exactly they fit into the longer works to which they once belonged, but here, in a relatively new translation, and…
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Book Review: Miller’s Song of Achilles
The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller If you’ve read the Iliad (and you really should read the Iliad) you know the basic outlines of Achilles life and, if you really paid attention, you remember Patroclus, his friend and consort whose death finally brings Achilles out of his moping to wage war on the Trojans. Miller’s…
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Literature Reveals the World: Some Quick Thoughts on Finley’s The World of Odysseus
The World of Odysseus M.I. Finley A stunning work of social history which uses what we know about the historical time period which produced the Iliad and the Odyssey to help understand these two classics. We need to remember that even to homer, the events of the Iliad and Odyssey were ancient history. His codification…
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Bibliography: Anne Carson
I don’t always love Anne Carson’s work. Autobiography of Red is one of my favorite books of contemporary poetry (can we call it that?) but Red Doc> was too much for me. But even when I don’t like an individual work, I love what I see to be her life’s project — connecting the classical…
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Euripides The Trojan Women and Other Plays
The Trojan Women and Other Plays Euripides The final ancient source I read for the Trojan War reading project I’m working on this year, this collects Euripides works The Trojan Women, Hecuba, and Andromache. Strangely, I’d never read any of these before. That’s what you get with a public education. The obvious point to make…
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A Magical Adventure for Some; a Tale of Return and Venegence for Others: Homer’s The Odyssey
The Odyssey Homer (trans. Robert Fagles) The story of the heroes return from the war. The story of a son in search of his father. The story of a woman using her guile to ward off her suitors and wait for the return of her love. The story of a man through intelligence and strength,…
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A Foundational Text of our Fucked Up World — My Quick Thoughts on Homer’s the Iliad
The Iliad Homer (trans. Fagles) It’s hard to believe that the first time I read the Iliad, I didn’t enjoy. I was in my youth more of an Odyssey guy. That seems insane now. Sure, the first time was in undergrad reading under deadline. It was also the Lattimore edition, well loved by many, but…
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Book Review: Cline’s The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction
The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction Eric H. Cline The title says it all. This introduction is focused on the history of the war itself, and the changing nature of our knowledge of it, and doesn’t spend much time on the literary aspects of the works (Iliad, et al) which have arisen around the…
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Review: Carson’s Red Doc>
Red Doc> Anne Carson A bit too much. As deeply as I loved Autobiography of Red, and as badly as I wanted to like this this, Red’s kinda sorta sequel, Red Doc> was too avant garde for me. Ostensibly, this is the story of what happened to Geryon, the protagonist of the Autobiography, when he…
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Review: Carson’s Autobiography of Red
Autobiography of Red Anne Carson Carson’s masterpiece of dysfunctional families, adolescent angst, love, and heart break as told (kinda, sorta) through an interpretation of the missing fragments of Stesichorus’ Geryoneïs and an imagining of was lost to history. It’s a strange book. There is a daring translation of some of what remains of Stesichorus’s work,…
Milo and the Calf 