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Read the Classics: Greece and Rome

Join "the Great Conversation" of the literary imagination by participating in a four-part reading, lecture and discussion series focused on literature of Ancient Greece and Rome. Sonia Sabnis, Assistant Professor of Classics and Humanities at Reed College, will give short lectures providing background and then will lead the discussions. 2009-2010 season.

Gresham Library

Second Sundays in November, January, March and May, 2–4 p.m.

The Discussions

The Iliad by Homer · November 8, 2009 · Register online for waiting list
The Odyssey by Homer · January 10, 2010 · Register online starting 11/8/09
The Aeneid by Virgil · March 14, 2010 · Register online starting 1/10/2010
The Golden Ass by Apuleius · May 9, 2010 · Register online starting 3/14/2010

Registration is required for each session; register online, in the library or call 503.988.5387.

A limited supply of these books will be available at the preceding book discussions. Pick up a "bring-em-back" copy of the book, that you do not have to check out, at Woodstock Library after registering. Return the book at the discussion.

Meet your professor

Sonia Sabnis is Assistant Professor of Classics and Humanities at Reed College. She received her B.A. from Columbia University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Her main area of research is literature of the Roman empire, particularly The Golden Ass by Apuleius.

The Books

Ancient Greek and Roman Epic

Epic poetry is the earliest Greek and Roman literature. It has its origins in songs chanted thousands of years ago by bards at festivals and in the halls of the great nobles in ancient Greece. These bards passed on stories and myths of the legendary heroes and heroines of an earlier age, shaping the tales for their contemporary audience. Epic poetry functioned as a kind of cultural memory for Greece in a time before the widespread use of writing, passing down stories in oral form from generation to generation.

From the beginning, Greek epic poetry addressed some of the most important issues facing human beings: Where did we come from? What are the gods like? Why do the gods act the way they do, and how should we act in response? Why is there war? What were the great heroes and heroines of long ago like, and how do their actions relate to actions in my own life? Why is there suffering and death in the world? What makes human life worth living? What is the nature of happiness?

As Greek epic poems were told and retold, they were constantly refashioned until they reached a form that was particularly effective and memorable. At some point between 800–650 B.C. two of these epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey, took final shape, and were written down. Exactly how this process happened is uncertain, but ancient Greeks later gave the name Homer to the author of the two epics. We know nothing about who Homer was. We are even unsure a single author named "Homer" ever existed, but according to Greek tradition he was a blind bard who had recited his poems while others wrote them down. The Iliad and The Odyssey were influential in ancient Greece, and were performed and read throughout antiquity. All ancient Greeks knew the poems and often memorized large portions of them by heart. They were so influential that they transcended Greek culture, influencing Roman authors like Virgil and Ovid who wrote in Latin many centuries later.

The Iliad by Homer

Iliad The Iliad (ca. 800 B.C.) is a stunning and powerful poem. Set in the final year of the Trojan War, it tells the story of the wrath of the great Greek hero Achilles and its terrible consequences for the Greeks and Trojans. It features the great heroes of Greek myth, including King Agamemnon, Odysseus and Ajax on the Greek side, and Hector, King Priam, Queen Hecuba, Paris, and Helen of Troy on the Trojan side. The story begins with an argument between Achilles and King Agamemnon that results in Achilles withdrawing in anger from the fighting, and then follows the terrible outcome of this decision through the violence and deaths of warriors on both sides. Played out against the background of the tragic fall of Troy and Achilles' own imminent death, it raises issues of honor, courage, rage, the nature of forgiveness, and ultimately, the meaning of life in the face of death. It is an unforgettable poem.

The Odyssey by Homer

Odyssey The Odyssey (ca. 800 B.C.) is the tale of what happens to a great hero, Odysseus, after the apocalypse of Troy. The poem opens 10 years after the end of the war, when Odysseus is still trying to find his way home to Ithaca. The story shifts back and forth between Odysseus being cast adrift at sea, facing mythic dangers beyond measure, and the efforts of his wife Penelope and son Telemachus to ward off violent suitors and keep their home together until Odysseus' return. Eventually Odysseus returns home in the guise of a beggar, and plots the deaths of the suitors who are destroying his house. While complementary to The Iliad, The Odyssey presents a different kind of hero and explores different social and cultural values, such as cunning intelligence, justice, endurance, home and family.

The Aeneid by Virgil

Aeneid With Virgil's The Aeneid (29?–19 B.C.) we move to the epic of another world. Virgil was a poet who lived in ancient Rome in the first century B.C., about 700 hundred years after Homer. When he wrote, Rome had conquered most of the Mediterranean world, including Greece, but had nearly imploded in a series of bloody civil wars under the strain. Rome's first emperor, Augustus, was just beginning to stabilize the Roman Empire when Virgil wrote his poem. The Aeneid goes back to the time of the Trojan War, but takes a very different perspective than Homer had. It tells the story of the Trojan hero Aeneas, who escaped from Troy as it fell to the Greeks, led a group of Trojans to the Italian peninsula, and with them founded a city that would, centuries later, lead to the founding of Rome. Virgil uses the figure of Aeneas to explore a conception of heroism different than Homer's, and to explore the themes of civilization, violence, and humanitas, a word coined by the Romans of Virgil's time to capture the qualities most essential to being deeply human and humane. He also uses the epic to help his readers reflect on what it means to be Roman, in terms of literature, social values, and conquest.

The Golden Ass by Apuleius, Lucius

Apuleius' The Golden Ass brings us into a different period of the Roman empire and into a different genre, the so-called “ancient novel.” Apuleius (ca. A.D. 120-180), an inhabitant of the Roman provinces of North Africa, adapted a popular Greek story about a man who is magically transformed into a donkey; his novel celebrates the pleasure of stories and storytelling while also depicting social and religious life in the provinces under Roman rule. The novel is humorous and often bawdy, but it also compels its readers to reflect seriously on the nature of knowledge, social problems and religious truth. Among the many interpolated tales that are woven into the master plot of Lucius, a noble whose curiosity for magic has dire consequences, is the famous story of Cupid and Psyche, a favorite subject of Renaissance artists. The Golden Ass may be remembered for its influence on authors like Cervantes and Boccaccio, but its playful allusions to the great epics of classical antiquity make it a fitting end to the series.