Tag Archives: Iliad

Anger in Ancient Greek Works

By Robin Bates | Published: September 13, 2017

A new book looks at how the ancient Greeks approached the issue of anger in works such as “Iliad,” “Ajax,” and “Hecuba.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Ajax, Beowulf, Euripides, Hecuba, Homer, Sophocles, violence, war | Comments closed

Great Pro-War Literature Doesn’t Exist

By Robin Bates | Published: June 22, 2017

In which I argue that great pro-war literature doesn’t exist, including “The iliad” and “War and Peace.” (Both works are magnificent; I just don’t see them as pro-war.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Charge of the Light Brigade", Alfred Lord Tennyson, anti-war literature, Catch 22, Donald Trump, Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Homer, Joseph Heller, Leo Tolstoy, Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer, Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, war, War and Peace | Comments closed

The Liberal Arts Will Not Die

By Robin Bates | Published: October 5, 2016

Thursday My colleague Jeff Hammond, a national authority on Puritan poetry and a much lauded writer of reflective essays, recently gave a stirring defense of the liberal arts for our parents-alumni weekend. Jeff’s observations dovetail very nicely with Percy Shelley’s Defence of Poetry, which I happen to be teaching at the moment. Watching poetry getting […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Defence of Poetry, Henry V, Jeffrey Hammond, Liberal Arts, Odyssey, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

On Broken Ceasefires, in Homer & in Syria

By Robin Bates | Published: September 25, 2016

The horrific bombing of a 31-truck aid convoy brought an end to the painstakingly negotiated ceasefire between Russian and the United States in Syria. The incident resembled how Hera and Athena break up the truce that the Greeks and Trojans are trying to negotiate in “The Iliad.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged broken truces, ceasefires, Homer, Russia, Syria, Syrian aid convoy bombing, Syrian civil war | Comments closed

Lily, Achilles, Bertha & Ishmael on Vacation

By Robin Bates | Published: May 18, 2016

Lily Bart, Bertha Mason, Achilles, Ishmael and Queequeg all go on vacation. Where do they go?

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Charlotte Bronte, Herman Melville, Homer, House of Mirth, Jane Eyre, Moby Dick, vacations, Wharton (Edith) | Comments closed

Trump’s Use of the Homeric Epithet

By Robin Bates | Published: May 17, 2016

Donald Trump is making regular use of “the Homeric epithet.” He doesn’t use it as well as Homer, however.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump, Homer, Odyssey, politics | Comments closed

Lit vs. the Evils of History–More Debate

By Robin Bates | Published: October 26, 2015

While literature can seem helpless in the face of history’s cataclysms, it proves far more durable than the events that seem to overwhelm it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alexander the Great, Don Quixote, Homer, Miguel de Cervantes, politics, W. H. Auden | Comments closed

Plato Anxious about Lit’s Pyschic Impact

By Robin Bates | Published: July 2, 2015

Plato’s complaints about literature show up in censorship battles today. They testify to power of literature to invite imitation.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aescylus, Hesiod, Homer, mimesis, neurocriticism, Plato, Republic | Comments closed

In Praise of the Liberal Arts

By Robin Bates | Published: April 17, 2015

NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof recently sang the praises of the liberal arts and talked about the vital importance of literature.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Ernest Hemingway, Homer, Jhumpa Lahiri, Khaled Hosseini, Liberal arts education, Odyssey, Old Man and the Sea, Toni Morrison | Comments closed