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Homeric
Odyssey
and the Cultivation
of Justice
has concluded. This site will remain accessible for
those of you who have come upon the series after
its conclusion. Units One,
Two,
Three
and Four
have been archived.
On those pages you'll find reading assignments,
lecture notes, and discussion questions. Thanks to
all of you who participated in our
dialogue!
Welcome
to "Homeric Odyssey and the Cultivation of
Justice", an online lecture and discussion series
organized and led by Professor Gregory Nagy, the
current Chair of the Department
of Classics
at Harvard University. He is actively assisted by
Teaching Fellows who have taught with him the
undergraduate Core Curriculum course "The Concept
of the Hero in Greek Civilization." The Berkman
Center's "Homeric Odyssey and the Cultivation of
Justice" is a seven-week exploration of the Homeric
Odyssey, with a particular emphasis on the
heroic search for the goal of social justice. In
the poetic imagination, this goal is pictured
through the metaphor of a beautifully cultivated
garden. Homeric poetry links this paradisiacal
metaphor with the hero's efforts to win back his or
her own "soul" (psyche). The Odyssey
itself is such a heroic journey of a
soul.
In ancient Greek
song culture, as exemplified by the Odyssey,
the goal of such a heroic quest is imagined as a
garden fertilized and even animated by the hero
whose body is ultimately buried within its hallowed
ground. This image is directly linked to the
historical fact that heroes were not only the
subject of song in the ancient Greek world but also
objects of religious cult.
The cult heroes
of the ancient Greeks were believed to be upholders
of social justice precisely because their bodies
were buried in the local earth of the communities
that worshipped them as the direct source of
fertility and prosperity. The image of the
paradisiacal garden is the eventual outcome in
stories of a hero's immortalization in song. The
Odyssey is such a story, and Odysseus is
such a hero.
Enrollment is
without charge and open to any interested
applicant, though the enrollment will be limited to
the first 1200 who register. The series will
feature reading of the Homeric Odyssey (in
the beautiful English translation of Samuel
Butler), lectures and discussion by the professor
and teaching fellows [through RealVideo],
other video materials and dialogues, on-line
'chat', and message boards.Previous experience with
ancient Greek Literature is emphatically not
required, and new-comers to Homer are heartily
encouraged to sign up! There are no prerequisites
for this course, and all materials are available in
English over the internet. To repeat, knowledge of
Greek is not required.
Readings for the
first unit may be found here.
Questions can be
e-mailed to the series' Head Teaching Fellows,
Casey
Dué
and Mary
Ebbott.
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