So looking forward to this translation! I may have to get to this in August. Good summer reading!

I’m equal parts jealous you took classical Greek, and hate-myself-y for not taking classical Greek my own self. Sigh. I realize I could teach it to myself with a good textbook and some time, but I am lazy and presently like Latin better. Don’t you hate it when you wish information resided in your brain, but you don’t want to take the necessary steps to put it there? It is like when you really, really want a cookie but you don’t want to get up from your comfy sofa to get one.

Hahahahahaha, no sympathy for tools!

There are so many amazing and untranslatable in-jokes in Homer; I really ought to try my hand at the Odyssey; we stuck with the Iliad when I took Classical Greek.

Maybe I didn’t cry. Memory is also unreliable. But my tear ducts told me I did. Clearly due for a re-read.

Greek hell. Yes. Dreary but kind of fascinatingly drear, to me. As I read your reply, it occurred to me that Diana Wynne Jones has done a spin on it a couple of times. The bleached out land in Deep Secret felt that way (hopefully I’ll get some thoughts together for DWJ week), and the place where Jamie is dictating Homeward Bounders. That always gave me chills. I love Jamie! I love Diana Wynne Jones! Maybe that book is my favorite of hers.

Come to think of it, my favorite Narnia book was always The Silver Chair. Lewis sets up Greek and Christian hell side by side. When you-know-what happens and everything busts loose, it’s like hades transforms to a happy-interesting-fiery place. He must have shared your preference for fire and brimstone. Oh, and the Great Divorce. Very hades.

Burning hurts, but isn’t it strange that medieval Westerners should have fixated on that particular infrequently-experienced torment? Especially Northern Europeans, who knew what it was to be in perpetual grey cold places.

Wow, good for you for learning the Greek! I need to do that. I could probably study it independently…

I’m trying to remember if we had to do a sight-reading for the Latin AP test. I think we probably did–I kind of enjoyed sight reading, back in the day when my Latin skills were fresh. :p

Oh, I bet reading the Odyssey aloud was great! I feel a little guilty reading Homer silently, when I know his poems were all oral tradition and meant to be read aloud.

No, no, it’s fine, lots of people haven’t read the Aeneid. I am partial to it because of being #teamtrojans and a Latin geek, but I know that it doesn’t have the same cultural resonance as Homer’s poems do. But you should read it all the same, I’d love to hear what you’d think of it. 🙂

Oh, will you miss teaching it? Or are you kind of ready for a break? It must be great fun to teach the Odyssey–I wish we’d had to read it in high school, but I don’t think I ever even read excerpts from it.

Cried, really? I remember cackling in satisfaction, but part of that was my Latin teacher disliking Aeneas and going on at length about how annoying he was (she called him “Whiny-ass”). So when he ran into Dido and everything, we all found it very satisfying.

I suppose it makes a difference that the Greeks’s version of hell was just sort of dreary–at least that’s how I always felt about it. Who’d want to rule over such a dreary grey place? At least fire and brimstone is interesting.

I’m so excited that you’re going to try it! It’s really a wonderful story–rereading it reminds me that there’s a reason it’s this incredibly archetypal story for the whole Western world. I hope you like it! The best way to read it, I’ve found, is one or two books at a time, as they’re each fairly short and thus not that intimidating.