Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and the Epic Cycle

Harvard FAS

Reading from the Hesiodic Theogony, Works and Days, and fragments such as "The Suitors of Helen." Added readings from the Homeric Hymns and from "Orphic" hymns. Also added readings from fragments of the Epic Cycle, including ancient retellings of such epics as "The Song of the Aethiopians." Particular attention to narrative techniques, poetics, myth, and connections with the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey. The course is based on the idea that no thorough understanding of Homer is possible without…