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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. Walter Englert, from Reed College, will give short lectures providing background and then will lead the discussions. 2010–2011 season.

Hillsdale Library

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

The Discussions

The Iliad by Homer · November 13, 2010
The Odyssey by Homer · January 15, 2011
The Aeneid by Virgil · March 19, 2011
The Satyricon by Petronius · May 21, 2011

Registration is required for each session; register online, in the library or call 503.988.5388.

A limited supply of these books will be available two months ahead of time for the first book discussion and at the preceding book discussions for the rest. Pick up a "bring-'em-back" copy of the book, which you do not have to check out, at Hillsdale Library after registering. Return the book at the discussion.

Meet your professor

Walter Englert is the Hoskins Professor of Classical Studies at Reed College, where he has taught since 1981. He received his MA at UC Santa Barbara, and Ph.D. at Stanford University. He has also taught at the Univ. of Michigan, UC Berkeley, and at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, Italy. He has published on Greek and Roman philosophy and oratory, and translated Lucretius' epic poem, On the Nature of Things, into English. He teaches Homer, Virgil and Petronius regularly in his Classics and Humanities courses at Reed College.

The Books

Overview of 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 who wrote in Latin many centuries later.

Homer's The Iliad

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.

Professor Englert's Iliad page Homeric geography, timeline, outline of The Iliad, English and Greek texts of The Iliad for word searching, Homer and art, archaeological sites of interest to The Iliad, and some commonly asked questions when reading The Iliad for the first time.

Homer's The Odyssey

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. The poem portrays a world very different from that of The Iliad, and a hero, Odysseus, who is very different than Achilles. The Odyssey focuses more on issues of cunning intelligence, justice, endurance, home, and family. It is the perfect counterpart to The Iliad, both reflecting and criticizing the values portrayed in the other poem.

Virgil's The Aeneid

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, writing in Latin, adapted Homeric Greek epic to explore crucial issues facing Romans of his time. He 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.

Petronius' The Satyricon

The nature of Roman epic changed under the Roman emperors who ruled after Augustus. The Satyricon, while not an epic poem itself, is a raucous and witty novel that parodies earlier Greek and Roman epics (especially Homer's Odyssey). It was written during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero (54–68 A.D.), and gives its readers an entertaining and sometimes harrowing glimpse of the shape and vicissitudes of life in southern Italy under the Roman Empire. Its author is usually identified with Titus Petronius Niger, a wealthy Roman aristocrat described by the Roman historian Tacitus as the emperor Nero's "arbiter of elegance." Only three books of The Satyricon survive out of what was originally a work of 16 (or more) books. The story follows the actions of Encolpius, an epic anti-hero who has a series of wild misadventures. The best-preserved section of the work describes the "Banquet of Trimalchio," a feast given by a fabulously wealthy freedman who entertains his guests in grand style and in very bad taste. A satire about life in the Roman empire, The Satyricon parodies epic themes to create very un-epic effects.

Read the Classics: Greece and Rome

Hillsdale Library

The Discussions

Meet your professor

The Books

Overview of Ancient Greek and Roman Epic

Homer's The Iliad

Homer's The Odyssey

Virgil's The Aeneid

Petronius' The Satyricon

More classic works of Ancient Greece and Rome — Suggested Readings

Further reading about the literature of Ancient Greece and Rome:

Greek and Roman Writers:

Homer — General:

Homer — The Iliad:

Homer — The Odyssey:

Virgil:

Petronius:

Read the Classics