Brilliant Minds

On the Name and the Muse

The NYTimes takes on an old issue. Remember how those epic heroes wanted to be sung of by the Bards to be immortalized. Well, here comes an examination of the name of the poet: On Poetry - The Great(ness) Game.

Cavafy's poem

If you've read the passage on the horses of Achilles in Book 3 of Quintus, lines 743 - 765 (p. 62), you might like to read a modern poem on the subject by C. P. Cavafy by following the link below:

Cavafy's The Horses of Achilles

For NYU students

Any information regarding NYU class cancellations will be posted here and on the NYU Blackboard site for our class. For access to Blackboard, the NYU instructions read as follows:

"You will need active NYUHome service in order to use NYU Blackboard. To activate the service, follow the instructions at http://start.nyu.edu, then log in to NYUHome with your NetID and password. If an instructor is using NYU Blackboard for one of your academic courses, you will be enrolled automatically when you register for the class."
See:  http://www.nyu.edu/its/blackboard/

Map of Homeric Greece

Here is a map for reference to use with our two readings from Ancient Greece. Click the map image below for a larger version in new window or view an ever larger image as a web page.

[map by Pinpin]

Epode

On the question of the "epode" which was raised in class, here is the relevant portion of the definition from Wikipedia:

Epode, in verse, is the third part of an ode, which followed the strophe and the antistrophe, and completed the movement. At a certain point in time the choirs, which had previously chanted to right of the altar or stage, and then to left of it, combined and sang in unison, or permitted the coryphaeus to sing for them all, while standing in the centre.
[Full text: Wikipedia]

Readings for Quintus of Smyrna

If you're reading ahead and would like selections from Quintus of Smyrna on The Trojan Epic, concentrate your reading on the following books for our class discussion:

Book 3: The Death of Achilles
Book 5: The Contest for the Armor of Achilles
Book 7: The Arrival of Neoptolemos
Book  9: The Arrival of Philoktetes
Book 10: The Death of Paris
Book 12: The Wooden Horse
Book 13: The Sack of Troy

Here you will find a review of the text we are using in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

For a link and key to the map at right: Map of Troy with Legend.

On Philoctetes

 As we begin the new semester with Sophocles' Philoctetes, consider this:

Wordsworth's poem of 1827:

When Philoctetes in the Lemnian Isle
Like a form sculptured on a monument
Lay couched; on him or his dread bow unbent
Some wild Bird oft might settle and beguile
The rigid features of a transient smile,
Disperse the tear, or to the sigh give vent,
Slackening the pains of ruthless banishment
From his loved home, and from heroic toil.
And trust that spiritual Creatures round us move,
Griefs to allay which Reason cannot heal;
Yea, veriest reptiles have sufficed to prove
To fettered wretchedness, that no Bastile
Is deep enough to exclude the light of love,
Though man for brother man has ceased to feel.

Location of Lemnos (Philoctetes):

Location of Skyros (Neoptolemos):

What's Google up to?

You may want to keep an eye on Google's influence on the role of the digital book. See this recent NYTimes article. Readers, authors, publishers, and lawyers are all involved in this one.