Reading Odyssey

Homer’s Odyssey Books 1-8 audio recording May 7, 2012

Here’s the audio recording for Andre’s group. Listen online or download the mp3 file and listen to it as a podcast on your mp3 player.

08. May 2012 by astipanovic
Categories: Homer-Odyssey, Reader Call | Comments Off on Homer’s Odyssey Books 1-8 audio recording May 7, 2012

Reading Odyssey Annual Report – 2011

We have created our first annual report in order to keep our growing community apprised of where we’ve been and where we are going.

You can read it here:

2011 Reading Odyssey Annual Report

The report details a number of things. We had a great year in 2011 – and reached thousands of adults around the world with our programs.

We have great plans in store for the future and in the report we describe how we are testing a new marketing strategy to reach adults: we are providing a free platform for *high schools* to run reading groups with the *parents* of their students, and also, for *libraries* to run groups with patrons.

As for help – we need all the help we can get to ignite more curiosity and lifelong learning.Would you like to help us?If so, you can assist in any of the following ways.

– Get a Reading Odyssey test reading group going at a school or library near you

– Help us launch more books (we need more scholars in science and literature to lend a hand)

– Donate $2.50 or $25.00?

It’s been about 2,500 years since the first great books began to appear and you can make a tax-deductible contribution in an amount to commemorate that. You will fund our global volunteer efforts to help more adults read important, challenging books:

http://www.readingodyssey.org/?page_id=173689503

You can also join one of our virtual reading groups this year – we are reading Homer’s Odyssey in May (http://odyssey2012.eventbrite.com) and Herodotus starting in September (http://herodotus2012.eventbrite.com). We also have a question and answer session on Iliad with Professor Paul Cartledge Monday, April 2 at 7pm New York time. Please join us for that –http://iliad2012qa.eventbrite.com

If you have any questions or want to find out more about how to help, please get in touch. I look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks,
Phil Terry
Founder and Chair, Reading odyssey

22. March 2012 by Phil Terry
Categories: Reading Odyssey | Tags: Annual Report | Comments Off on Reading Odyssey Annual Report – 2011

Some Iliad Follow-ups

Here are a few of the questions that came up during my reading group’s last call. Any good ones I missed?

· Are there any lost books that were part of the Iliad cycle?

· Is there an anti-monarchical message embedded in the portrayals of the kings and their families?

· Did the ancients see the gods as behaving as horribly as most of us would see them today?

· In ancient Greek theology, how powerful are the gods? Is fate stronger than they are? Why the did the gods need to protect destiny from the Greeks overreaching it?

· Was all the gore partly included for entertainment? For realism? For an anti-war message? How was it perceived by contemporary audiences?

· Were there two or more authors?

· How was the Iliad performed? How would changes of scene have been handled?

· What’s up with the horses crying amid the slaughter?

And if you’re ready to sign up to read the Odyssey, here’s the link:

http://odyssey2012.eventbrite.com/

Finally, Andre Stipanovic shared this story from the New York Times about the location of Odysseus’ home:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/kristof-odysseus-lies-here.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

The story is another fine example of a non-academic’s contribution to classical studies.

16. March 2012 by Arrian
Categories: Homer-Iliad, Study Questions | Comments Off on Some Iliad Follow-ups

The Iliad, Visualized

The names of so many heroes and gods fly by when you’re reading or hearing the Iliad read aloud. One of the challenges (and joys!) of the Iliad is the concentration it asks of you in making an effort to balance all those characters amid so much action. One way to simplify the crush of names is to visualize them. Data designer Santiago Ortiz came up with these two ways to analyze Iliad names. One harnesses the names to a time stream and sizes them by the amount they are present on the page. The network chart (and adjacent treemap) shows all of the relationships among the characters based on their co-occurence. Diaz used this translation by A.S. Kline. and loaded the data here for the name-stream and network charts.

Here is a hi-res image of the word map

Source: http://moebio.com/iliad/

14. March 2012 by Arrian
Categories: Commentary, Homer-Iliad | Comments Off on The Iliad, Visualized

Homer Iliad1 Books 17-24 audio recording Mar 2012

Homer Iliad Books 17-24 Mar 12 2012.mp3

Here’s the audio recording for Andre’s group. Listen online or download the mp3 file and listen to it as a podcast on your mp3 player.

13. March 2012 by astipanovic
Categories: Homer-Iliad, Reader Call | Comments Off on Homer Iliad1 Books 17-24 audio recording Mar 2012

Homer Iliad1 Feb 2012 Books 9-16 audio recording

Homer Iliad Books 9-16 Feb 13 2012.mp3

Here’s the audio recording for Andre’s group. Listen online or download the mp3 file and listen to it as a podcast on your mp3 player.

14. February 2012 by astipanovic
Categories: Homer-Iliad, Reader Call | Comments Off on Homer Iliad1 Feb 2012 Books 9-16 audio recording

Aching for the Iliad on Super Bowl Sunday

Hope you enjoy the Super Bowl (or not as the case may be).

And whether or not you believe there is something to the Hector-Achilles-like duel between Brady and Manning, you might enjoy this tidbit from the New York Times “1-page” magazine (page 9 of the print magazine).

Madeline Miller is very very briefly interviewed about her recent novel “The Song of Achilles”, which re-imagines the Iliad as a love story between Achilles and Patroclus. I haven’t read her novel so I can’t comment on it, but I’m always glad to see the Iliad in popular culture. This 2,500+ year old story continues to resonate – as Reading Odyssey members well know from their current reading of the Iliad.

We will be getting questions out to the many reading groups tomorrow or Tuesday in advance of the next meetings around the country Monday, February 13 discussing Iliad Books 9 – 16.

Go Greeks (I mean Giants),

Phil

I Can’t Quit You, Achilles

By Maud Newton

“I stole it from Plato!” Madeline Miller jokes, when asked how she came to interpret the “Iliad” as a love story between Achilles, the half-god warrior, and Patroclus, whose death he insists on avenging even if doing so ensures his own. Her novel, “The Song of Achilles,” is drenched with longing not seen since “Brokeback Mountain,” and, as the writer Donna Tartt says, conjures the goddess Thetis with “the true savagery and chill of antiquity.”

via nytimes.com

05. February 2012 by Phil Terry
Categories: Commentary, Homer-Iliad | Comments Off on Aching for the Iliad on Super Bowl Sunday

Mary Beard on why we read the Classics

Check out Classicist Mary Beard’s somewhat discursive lecture on the state of the Classics in contemporary culture, including consideration of a “decline” that goes back centuries, and some inspiring points for those of us who continue to engage with them.

http://www.nybooks.com/shared/ff059f82e6a33996e3eb6f340f0c094e

29. January 2012 by Arrian
Categories: Classics-General | Comments Off on Mary Beard on why we read the Classics