CHS Learning Module

Classical Inquiries | Picturing Homer as a cult hero

Detail of a relief depicting the “Apotheosis of Homer,” attributed to Archelaos of Priene, ca. 225 BCE–205 BCE. In the British Museum. Photo, Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons. CHS Director Gregory Nagy recently participated in a panel discussion at the National Gallery of Art with researcher Gloria Ferrari Pinney (Harvard University). The focus of their talk was a bronze head currently on display at the Museum of Fine… Read more

Classical Inquiries | Just to look at all the shining bronze here, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven: Seeing bronze in the ancient Greek world

Head of a Bearded God, first century BC, bronze, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Isabel B. and Wallace S. Wilson Today, February 25, at 3:30 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington DC, Gregory Nagy and Gloria Ferrari Pinney are holding a panel discussion on “A poet or a god: The Iconography of Certain Bearded Male Bronzes.” This is… Read more

Classical Inquiries | Just to look at all the shining bronze here, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven: Seeing bronze in the ancient Greek world

Head of a Bearded God, first century BC, bronze, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Isabel B. and Wallace S. Wilson Today, February 25, at 3:30 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington DC, Gregory Nagy and Gloria Ferrari Pinney are holding a panel discussion on “A poet or a god: The Iconography of Certain Bearded Male Bronzes.” This is the… Read more

CHS Essentials | The Suffering of Heroes

With the fifth version of the HeroesX project opening on Jan. 6, we would like to reflect upon the hero and heroic tradition. In the featured video, Gregory Nagy talks about the suffering of heroes in an attempt to elaborate on the choice of violent ends for heroes by Greek tragedians. Gregory Nagy comments that “if the hero is larger than life—and he or she is—then… Read more

CHS Essentials | The Suffering of Heroes

With the fifth version of the HeroesX project opening on Jan. 6, we would like to reflect upon the hero and heroic tradition. In the featured video, Gregory Nagy talks about the suffering of heroes in an attempt to elaborate on the choice of violent ends for heroes by Greek tragedians. Gregory Nagy comments that “if the hero is larger than life—and he or she is—then the… Read more

Classical Inquiries | Diachronic Sappho: some prolegomena

Detail from Attic krater attributed to the Brygos painter, 480-470 BCE. Line drawing by Valerie Woelfel. “A diachronic as well as synchronic approach to the songmaking of Sappho” by Gregory Nagy In his posting Diachronic Sappho: some prolegomena, Gregory Nagy argues that the art of Sappho’s songmaking can be viewed as an evolving medium through time. He offers his views in support of this argument. Read more

Classical Inquiries | Diachronic Sappho: some prolegomena

Detail from Attic krater attributed to the Brygos painter, 480-470 BCE. Line drawing by Valerie Woelfel. “A diachronic as well as synchronic approach to the songmaking of Sappho” by Gregory Nagy In his posting Diachronic Sappho: some prolegomena, Gregory Nagy argues that the art of Sappho’s songmaking can be viewed as an evolving medium through time. He offers his views in support of this argument. Read more

Classical Inquiries | Homo ludens in the world of ancient Greek verbal art

Mosaic showing theatrical masks of comedy and tragedy, from the Baths of Decius on the Aventine Hill, Rome, 2nd century CE. [image by antmoose, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons  In his recent Classical Inquiries posting, Gregory Nagy argues that “the capacity of ancient Greek poetry to imitate, in a playful way, language in all its forms, both artful and artless” is what ultimately shaped all verbal arts,… Read more

Classical Inquiries | Homo ludens in the world of ancient Greek verbal art

Mosaic showing theatrical masks of comedy and tragedy, from the Baths of Decius on the Aventine Hill, Rome, 2nd century CE. [image by antmoose, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons In his recent Classical Inquiries posting, Gregory Nagy argues that “the capacity of ancient Greek poetry to imitate, in a playful way, language in all its forms, both artful and artless” is what ultimately shaped all verbal arts, including… Read more