A Voyage 'round the Odyssey
It seems particularly timely to be reading the Odyssey at this moment with the imminent release – on July 17! – of Christopher Nolan's $150 million blockbuster film starring Matt Damon and Ann Hathaway. But in actual fact, there's never been a time not to read Homer's great poem, which evokes a world where fantasy and reality constantly rub shoulders. It's a world that speaks profoundly of the human experience, specifically of our journey through life, of growing up, aging, and growing old. It does so whether we're starting off on our path like Telemachus, Odysseus' son, whether we're middle-aged like Odysseus and Penelope, or whether we're on "the threshold of old age," as Homer calls it, like Odysseus's father Laertes. It also presents us with an extraordinary gallery of powerful women, who control Odysseus's destiny by either aiding or impeding his return home to Ithaca.
Homer's Odyssey stands at the very beginning of the western canon, but it also happens to be extraordinarily sophisticated. It's also inexhaustibly rich in subtlety. There are many excellent translations, but I recommend Emily Wilson's highly acclaimed translation (W.W. Norton & Co.), which retains the line structure of Homer's poem.
Participants in this four-part, limited-capacity reading group will not only read selected parts of the poem in detail, but also look at its origins and its reception down the ages to the present day. The four meetings will take the form of discussions rather than lectures, and, as visiting scholar Dr. Robert Garland, the Roy D. and Margaret B. Wooster Emeritus Professor of the Classics at Colgate University, and author of numerous books, who will lead the discussions, notes, "I will be eager to hear your responses throughout. Whether you've read the Odyssey before or are coming to it for the first time, I'll make sure that it reveals itself to you as never before."
Location: Jefferson Educational Society - 3207 State St. Erie, PA 16508
Date/Time: Monday, July 6th through Thursday, July 9th 12:00 to 1:30 p.m.
Admission: $50/person; free for Agora Circle Members
*This series is part of our USA 250 Visiting Speaker Week-in-Residence 'Democracy: From Beginning to Now' Series
*If you do NOT receive an email from info@jeserie.org within 24-48 hours regarding your registration, please check your spam or junk folder. Thank you!
Dr. Robert Garland is the Roy D. and Margaret B. Wooster Emeritus Professor of the Classics at Colgate University. Dr. Garland received his M.A in Classics from McMaster University and his Ph.D. in Ancient History from University College London. He is also a recipient of the George Grote Ancient History Prize. Dr. Garland has authored many books, including “The Greek Way of Death,” ‘The Eye of the Beholder,” “Athens Burning: The Persian Invasion of Greece and the Evacuation of Attica (Witness to Ancient History,” and “What to Expect When You’re Dead: An Ancient Tour of Death and the Afterlife”. And after captivating audiences as a presenter at the 2023 Global Summit, this summer he returns to the Jefferson Educational Society for his third summer residency.
