My explanation for the monsters in “The Odyssey.”
Tag Archives: Odyssey
Mentor: Rare for Sons to Be Like Fathers
Homer explores the difficulty of a young man living up to his famous father. It’s a problem that continues with fathers and sons.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, fathers and sons, Homer, Ulysses Comments closed
Welcoming the Stranger
In Homeric terms, Trump, in his treatment of immigrants, is akin to barbarians like the Cyclops and the Laestrygonians.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged border separations, Donald Trump, Homer, immigrant border crisis, Stephen Miller, strangers Comments closed
Calvino on Reading the Classics
In a famous essay, Calvino gives us multiple reasons to read the classics.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Why Read the Classics", classics, Emil Cioran, Franz Kafka, Homer, Italo Calvino Comments closed
Teach Game Theory through Greek Myths
Friday The other day I stumbled across an American Economist article, written up in JSTOR Daily, arguing that teachers who want their students to retain the fundamentals of game theory should turn to Greek myths. Economist James D. Miller and classicist Debbie Felton explain their reasoning as follows: For professional economists, game theory is about […]
Will Odysseus Shape 2020 Election?
Monday I won’t take credit for this but Washington Post’s Molly Roberts recently penned a very Better-Living-with Beowulf type column where she contrasted two Democratic presidential candidates by examining which version of the Odysseus/Ulysses story they prefer. Her piece gives me an excuse to apply other versions of the story to various 2020 contenders. Roberts […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2020 election, Aeneid, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Beto O'Rourke, Donald Trump, Finnegans Wake, Homer, James Joyce, Joe Biden, Joseph Campbell, Pete Buttigieg, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, Virgil Comments closed
The Roots of a Beautiful Marriage
Spiritual Sunday Every time I visit Slovenia (six times now, the first two for year-long Fulbrights), I learn something new. In my most recent visit, I discovered it is common for couples to live together for years before getting married (if they ever do). While I can’t speak to overall statistics, I talked with several […]
The GOP & Trump’s Siren Call
Tuesday The other day I detected one of Atlantic’s excellent columnists misusing a classical analogy. I flag Ed Kilgore, not to show off, but because the analogy is indeed enlightening if used correctly. See if you can find the mistake: This would suggest that the occasional efforts by individual Republican congressmen to show some distance from […]
