Winter 2023 1-Hour Seminars
All designed for a general audience. All are Eastern U.S./NYC time. All are about one hour in duration.
Translating Ancient Texts: The Aeneid. Feb. 25, 10 a.m. ET
Hillary Yip will lead participants through selected passages from Aeneid book 6, looking at the original Latin and several translations to understand the range of potential approaches to the same text.
Workshopping Lesson Plans for Teaching Epics. March 11, 12 p.m. ET
Join this open forum discussion led by Elizabeth Wilson that will introduce teaching techniques to your classical arsenal and help you workshop your own ideas into fully fleshed out, ready-to-teach lessons.
Teaching the Iliad. March 18, 12 p.m. ET
Anthony Verity’s translation of The Iliad has opened new perspectives on how to make this text accessible in the high school classroom. Homer’s story is still relevant today as teenagers grapple with a changing society that is demanding, stressful, yet beautiful and simple at the same time. To read a text that helps one answer, Who am I?,What is my purpose? Do I have the right to be angry? How do I follow a leader who arrogantly changes the rules to suit his own personal gain?
Dreams, pride, and love taunt Achilles as he makes the ultimate life decisions concerning family or fame; love or sacrifice; life or death. Even the gods are in awe of Achilles!
Patricia Vandigriff will present modern connections, activities, and lessons that teachers can use in their own classroom to synthesize, analyze, and explore one of the greatest Greek warriors.
Private Religion in the Ancient World. March 25, 12 p.m. ET
How did ordinary people in the ancient world interact with divine powers about their own personal concerns? Dr. Charlotte Spence will explore this question through the lens of curse tablets, in which small inscriptions were written on pieces of lead and deposited in graves, underground bodies of water, and sanctuaries. These texts are known as curse tablets. Through this ritual ancient individuals could use the power of the gods or the restless dead to curse their enemies, bind the competition in sporting contests, steal another man’s wife, break up lovers, and even win legal trials! Welcome to a world described by Pliny as one where ‘there is no one who does not fear to be spell-bound by curse tablets!’ (Pliny, Natural History 28.5.19.)
Herodotus: Echoes of Epic. April 15, 12 p.m. ET
Herodotus opens his “inquiry” into the Persian Wars with the hope that great deeds not go unsung. Performing an almost bard-like function, he intersperses his narrative with many poignantly framed mythological tales and type scenes that echo not only Homeric epic, but also Homeric hymns and even lyric poetry. During this one hour session, Lauren Heilman will examine key moments in Herodotus’ Histories that demonstrate his great gift for “myth retelling,” his structural genius, and his debt to previous compositions.
Translating Ancient Texts: Homer. Saturday, April 29, 12 p.m. ET
HM Classics Academy’s Helen McVeigh and Dr. Eirene Allen will discuss the challenges of translating Homer. Topics they will cover include grammatical features unique to Homeric epics and the cultural context of their production.
Winter/Spring 2023: Homer’s Odyssey (Professor Eirene Allen)
The epic that inspired the road trip genre, the Odyssey is often remembered as the story of a man who took ten years to return home to his wife, fighting off sirens, nymphs, and his and his companions’ bad decisions along the way. But beneath the apparent vice and folly lies an exploration of the nature of storytelling, the limits of perseverance, the contours of faith, the inscrutability of death, and a quest to define and safeguard home.
Mondays January 23 to April 17 (no class March 6) , 7-9 p.m ET. Open to all.
Iliad. The next seminars will be held Fall 2023.
Consultations. Teachers and schools can contact the Institute via email to set up a time to speak about their community’s particular needs and goals.
Discussion groups. Teachers are invited to join our moderated Discord server to discuss the texts, ask questions, and exchange resources. To join, Contact Us with a request.
Seminars for Libraries. The Institute for Classics Education provides online seminars to introduce library patrons to the classics of ancient Greece in translation. The seminars are hosted by the library, streamed online, and presented by the Institute’s Dr. Allen. More information is here.
Reading recommendations for teachers: translations and analytical works on ancient texts vary significantly. Click here for the Institute’s position on translation and here for overviews of recommended translations for the Iliad and the Odyssey.