Epics are focus of new lecture series

Hahn

homas Hahn, professor of English in the College, is inviting readers both on and off campus to join in a literary and intellectual odyssey of a special sort.

Hahn has launched a lecture series to explore three ancient Greek and Roman epics--the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid--and the poems' place in contemporary culture.

Designed as a noncredit course, the series "Great Books and What to do With Them: the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid," is free and open to the public. Lectures take place on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. in the Drama House on the Fraternity Quadrangle.

Hahn says the epics continue to resonate with modern readers because contemporary readers bring new perspectives to the books while finding new ideas in them.

"I've called the series 'Great Books and What to Do With Them' as a way of suggesting that what matters most is engagement with the books, and with other readers: One has to appreciate their strangeness as much as their universality, and resist as much as enjoy, in order to do them justice," Hahn says.

Specific passages in the works--announced in advance--will be the focus of each lecture and discussion.

Upcoming sessions in the series, "Great Books and What to do With Them: the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid," include:

March 14--"The Odyssey as Hero's Journey: Knowledge, Discovery, and Aggression."

March 21--"Sex, Violence, Reconciliation: The Epic as Comedy."

April 4--"What Homer Never Showed Us: the Fall of Troy as Holocaust in the Aeneid."

April 11--"Sex, Race, Politics: Queen Dido as Obstacle to Empire."

April 18--"Underworld Journey, Psychological Discovery, Manifest Destiny: Aeneas and the Shrinking Epic Hero."

For more information contact x5-5664 or consult the course page for English 140 at www.courses.rochester.edu/hahn/eng140.

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