Category Archives: Homer

Endure O heart!: Odyssey 20, lines 10 – 21

I have chosen this passage from the Odyssey, as it is one that I have found can be comforting, especially during times of uncertainty. More often than not we have […]

Endlessness – Homer, Ibycus, Cicero, Leopardi (Contributed by Cristina Lofaro)

These passages explain the feelings of the four poets dealing with what is endless, impossible to reach, and for man to understand in depth. In the Greek and Latin extracts, […]

Poppies in Classical Poetry – Homer, Catullus, Virgil, Dante (contributed by Jane Mason and David Bevan)

Homer’s simile describes the death of a minor character, shot by mistake by Teucer when aiming at Hector. Catullus’ poem begins with a bitter and crude invective against his unfaithful […]

Homer, Odyssey 9.82-105 (contributed by Amanda Waters)

As an AS level student who studied Greek to GCSE, it was very gratifying when my knowledge of Greek helped me to understand the poetry unit of my English AS. […]

Homer Odyssey 9.355-370, 403-414 (contributed by Jane Mason)

I love this story: the way they both try to trick each other, the baffled and callous response of the other Cyclopes, but especially the word play! The confusion between […]

Homer Iliad 1.334-363, 16.1-19, 18.70-77 (Contributed by Tom Brown)

I loved the passage about the removal of Briseis, followed by Achilles’ tearful appeal to Thetis, when I first read it at school (c. 1967), but it was only 40 […]

Iliad 6.447 – 489 (excerpts)

Hector bids farewell to Andromache and Astyanax. These lines contain all the contradictory emotions called forth by the heartbreak of war, the conflict of love and duty, courage and acceptance […]

Odyssey 1.1-10

The opening lines from the Odyssey, in which Homer describes the hero Odysseus, his character, his suffering. Jane Mason and Stephen Jenkin   ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα […]

Iliad 1.1-7

The opening lines from the Iliad, in which Homer describes the dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles and its effect on the Greek soldiers. Stephen Jenkin μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος […]