My sentence here in §55 about line 910 in the Electra of Euripides as worded in the original version of 2015.10.01 has been rewritten 2021.07.12, thanks to the guidance of my esteemed colleague Marco Fantuzzi, whom I invite to add a further annotation to the annotation I am making… Read more
[Editor’s note: Click “Show More” for additional commentary by Joseph F. Nagy.] This finale to the triad of wonderful posts opens up all sorts of perspectives within Greek and without. Off the top of my head: 1) The whole cattle-and-sheep raiding context in relation to initiation. Both Nestor (Iliad 11)… Read more
There seems to have been a great deal of variation in traditional narratives about the setting for the trickery of Odysseus when he succeeded in recruiting Achilles to join the Achaeans in fighting the Trojan War. In the version mediated by Statius, the setting is the island of Skyros: Achilles,… Read more
About the myth that tells about the conception of Baby Homer, fathered by the god Apollo, I refer to one of my all-time favorites when it comes to writing footnotes—which does not have to be a tedious thing to do. The footnote I am thinking about is at p. 259… Read more
I should add that the French term “la belle mort” figures prominently in The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/part-i-hour-5-when-mortals-become-equal-to-immortals-death-of-a-hero-death-of-a-bridegroom/, as for example at the paragraph that you find at 5§108. Read more
A favorite example for me is a statue of Apollo’s head with hair made of gold leaf, pictured at §1 of https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/comments-on-comparative-mythology-1-about-apollo/. Read more
