Tag Archives: Odyssey

Teach Game Theory through Greek Myths

By Robin Bates | Published: June 6, 2019

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 […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

We Need Barr to Be a Homeric Hero

By Robin Bates | Published: June 2, 2019

Monday Asked last week about damaging his legacy on behalf of Donald Trump, Attorney General William Barr invoked Homer. “Everyone dies,” he said, “and I am not, you know, I don’t believe in the Homeric idea that you know, immortality comes by, you know, having odes sung about you over the centuries, you know?” In […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Will Odysseus Shape 2020 Election?

By Robin Bates | Published: April 14, 2019

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

The Roots of a Beautiful Marriage

By Robin Bates | Published: December 16, 2018

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 […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

The GOP & Trump’s Siren Call

By Robin Bates | Published: November 20, 2018

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 […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

Returning to the Misty Past

By Robin Bates | Published: October 18, 2018

John Gatta’s “Spirits of Place” is helping me understand why I have chosen to retire in my home town. Wordsworth, Stowe, Homer, and Frost help out as well.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Bob Dylan, Gifted Storyteller

By Robin Bates | Published: June 8, 2017

Bob Dylan, in his Nobel Acceptance Speech, made it clear that literary influences are as big in his song writing as musical influences.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Fantasy, a Portal to the Numinous

By Robin Bates | Published: March 26, 2017

People are often drawn to fantasy in our post-Enlightenment world because they hunger for the numinous.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 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 , , , , , | Comments closed