Miller’s novel “Circe” engages with a long tradition of Circe and Odysseus depictions, including those of Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Sophocles, Dante, Tennyson, and Atwood.
Tag Archives: Sophocles
The Sexual Politics of Circe-Odysseus
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Circe, Circe Mud Poems, Euripides, Hecuba, Inferno, Madeline Miller, Margaret Atwood, Penelopiad, Philoctetes, Sexual Politics, Ulysses Comments closed
Seamus Heaney’s Healing Vision
Seamus Heaney’s “Cure at Troy” points toward a country’s possibility for healing, a powerful vision as America emerges from the Trump presidency and a contentious election.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Cure at Troy, Election 2020, Joe Biden, Philoctetes, Seamus Heaney, truth and reconciliation Comments closed
Hope for a Great Sea-Change
The Seamus Heaney poem that Biden quotes in a new ad is itself taken from Heaney’s verse translation of Sophocles’s “Philoctetes.” It’s perfect for the current moment.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Cure of Troy", 2020 election, Joe Biden, Martha Nussbaum, Philoctetes, Seamus Heaney Comments closed
Trump & Covid: Tragedy or Farce?
Was the Rose Garden event for Trump’s new SCOTUS pick–which became a Covid superspreader event–a Shakespearean tragedy? How about a farce?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged COVID-19, Donald Trump, Game of Thrones, George Martin, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Masque of the Red Death, Richard III, William Shakespeare Comments closed
A Literary Survey of What Plagues Mean
A survey of how literary authors have grappled for meaning in times of pestilence bolsters our own search. I look at Sophocles, Virgil, Defoe, Porter, Camus, King, Mandel, Atwood, and Erdrich.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aeneid, Albert Camus, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Emily St. John Mandel, Journal of the Plague Year, Katherine Anne Porter, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Atwood, Oedipus, Oryk and Crake, Pale Horse Pale Rider, Pestilence, plague, Stand, Station Eleven, Stephen King, Tracks, Virgil Comments closed
Why Trump Is Not a Tragic Hero
Wednesday The strangest development in the Trump Ukraine scandal may be the way that Trump himself has given us the smoking gun—which is to say, the rough transcript of a phone call where he tries to shake down the Ukrainian president for dirt on the 2020 political opponent he most fears. Jon Meacham attributes Trump’s […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Greek tragedy, hubris, Oedipus, Trump Ukraine Scandal Comments closed
Cataract Surgery: See Better, Lear
Thursday I am undergoing a second cataract surgery today and so am reposting the essay I wrote following my first (successful) surgery. I don’t expect to re-experience the same mixed feelings that I described two years ago, but dramas that feature sharp objects poked into people’s eyes still seem relevant. This essay is not for […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Black Leopard Red Wolf, cataract surgery, King Lear, Marlon James, Oedipus, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Through Lit, We Learn Compassion
Tuesday My brother Sam, an enthusiastic Unitarian Universalist, gave me Karen Armstrong’s Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life for Christmas, and I was pleased that the author sees literature playing a major role. In today’s post I share how she draws on the ancient Greeks. Armstrong writes, “All faiths insist that compassion is the test […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Prelude", Aeschylus, compassion, Eumenides, Euripides, Heracles, Homer, Iliad, Oedipus at Colonus, Oresteia, Tintern Abbey, William Wordsworth Comments closed
