Tag: Homer

421 words

Translated by Greg Johnson

Greek translation here

Not for an instant do I forget the struggles of our time. Not for an instant do I forget the struggles of the past that made us who we are. Not for an instant do I forget that to exist is not just to dedicate and devote oneself but also to fight. Nor do I forget that life has intense moments and calm moments, joys and cruelties.

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742 words

English version here

En 1814, al final de las Guerras Napoleónicas, Benjamin Constant escribió con alivio: “Hemos llegado a la era del comercio, la era que debe necesariamente reemplazar a la de la guerra, tal como la era de la guerra tuvo que necesariamente preceder.” ¡Iluso Benjamin! Asumió demasiado amplia la idea del progreso indefinido apoyando el advenimiento de la paz entre hombres y naciones.

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4,074 words

Athena

Walter F. Otto
The Homeric Gods: The Spiritual Significance of Greek Religion
Translated by Moses Hadas
North Stratford, N.H.: Ayer Company Publishers, 2001

“My goal is to create total enmity between our current ‘culture’ and Antiquity. Whoever wants to serve the former must hate the latter.”—Friedrich Nietzsche[1]

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The Trojan Horse: Detail of the neck relief on an early 7th century BCE earthenware amphora from Mykonos

743 words

Translated by Greg Johnson

Current events sometimes offer striking examples of the unforeseen. Last spring, we were all shocked by images of one of the great and powerful looking despondent, his wrists shackled, having suddenly fallen from his perch of impunity. By means of the media, spectators felt that they were following much more than a single news event. (more…)

722 words

Translated by M. P.

Arthur Koestler, the author of Le zéro et l’infini (in English, Darkness at Noon), once played an important role in the Spanish Civil War as an agent of the Comintern. Through his writings, he set the tone of an anti-Francoist propaganda that has endured. Later, his deceptions made him an acute critic of Stalinism. (more…)

717 words

Translated by Greg Johnson

Translations: Portuguese, Spanish

In 1814, at the end of the Napoleonic wars, Benjamin Constant wrote with relief: “We have arrived at the age of commerce, the age that must necessarily replace that of war, as the age of war necessarily had to precede it.” Naïve Benjamin! He took up the very widespread idea of indefinite progress supporting the advent of peace between men and nations.

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Ezra Pound by Arno Breker

928 words

Canto I (“And then went down”)

For Ezra Pound’s recitation (5:32), click here: MP3

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John William Waterhouse, “Penelope and the Suitors”

1,744 words

Part 3 of 3. Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here.

Translated by Greg Johnson

The Odyssey: The Place of Man in the Cosmos

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1,754 words

Translated by Greg Johnson

Part 2 of 3. Part 1 here.

The Anger & Remorse of Achilles

After ten years of a very long siege, along with raids in the area, a quarrel opposed Agamemnon, chief of the Achaean coalition, and Achilles, the most famous hero of his camp. (more…)

2,463 words

Translated by Greg Johnson

Part 1 of 3

François Julien, one of the most acute minds of our time, recalled:

When I was in school, people called me and a friend “the Homerists” . . . (more…)

Rembrandt, “Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer,” 1653

930 words

Translated by Greg Johnson, German translation here

For the Ancients, Homer was “the beginning, the middle, and the end.” A vision of the world and even a philosophy are implicitly contained in his poems. Heraclitus summarized his cosmic foundation with a well-turned phrase: “The universe, the same for all beings, was not created by any god or by any man; but it always was, is, and will be eternally living fire . . .” (more…)