Current Readings

As March begins winding down, we are currently getting acquainted with one of the political classics of all
time--Plato's Republic--and enjoying the opening books of that greatest of travelogues--Homer's Odyssey.

On the cover, a portion of the School of Athens:  Plato, left, argues with his student Aristotle, right. 
Neither was right.

 


For now, we are looking at the opening books--The Telemachia.



Back from Lemnos--Humanities Blog Revives

Assignments for the Week of February 6--10

 

Philoctetes:  Oh, my aching foot!

Monday:  Finish the Thermopylae Test on Chapters 4 and 5

Begin Reading  Prometheus Bound.  This will enable us to complete all 3 volumes of Greek Tragedies.

Read the following for Homework:  Essay--"Tragedy and Comedy"
                                                       Thermopylae, Chapters 6, 7 & 8

Tuesday:  Test Over Thermopylae, Chapters 6, 7, & 8.

Finish Reading Prometheus Bound.

Classwork and Homework on Greek Tragedies

Wednesday:  A Test to Overshadow All Tests Over Greek Tragedies

Continue with the Film:  300 Spartans

Reading:  Chapters 9--11 of Thermopylae

Thursday:  Test Over Chapters 9--11 of Thermopylae

Briefing Over TRAGEDIES PAPER

Homework:  Write the Tragedies Paper, Step 1--The 3 Paragraphs

Friday:  In-Class Peer Reviews of THE TRAGEDIES PAPER

Continue (finish) 300 Spartans

Instructions for THE TRAGEDIES PAPER

Decide which 3 Tragedies are your favorites.

Rank them--from 3rd to 1st

Decide what factors make a tragedy a favorite

• Heroic characters
• Feminine characters
• Surprise endings
• Sin or Forgiveness
• Struggling against Fate
• Human flaws
• or whatever else you can think of.

Write a paragraph on each of the three plays you chose, using the factors you chose.

"The Greeks present a picture of their culture and say, this is the way it is--thsi is what we value, this is what makes us who we are, this is who is included, who excluded--and then blast the entire conglomeration to pieces.  What is most often misunderstood about Classical literature is that almost all of it was composed as a critique of Greek society and the very values that allowed it to flourish.  The most important legacy of the Greeks and Romans is this uniquely Western urge to pick apart everything--every insitution, tradition, individual. Only in this manner do ideas change at all--and only in this way does an author find any credibility with the reading or listening audience."

Victor Davis Hansen and John Heath, Who Killed Homer?

   

To the Gates of Troy

Assignments for the Last Weeks of the Semester: 

 In the Tenth Year of the Trojan War

To Book 24 of Homer's Iliad

Finish the Iliad

First to finish was brilliant Mr. House, wielder of books read and students broken under his ashen spear.

Finished on Thursday at 11:00 a.m.

The Paper:

Write a 3 to 5 paragraph paper comparing the situations, personalities, and connections between two of the characters of the Iliad.

Achilles and  Agamemnon

Achilles and Thetis

Achilles and Patroklos

Achilles and Priam

Achilles and Hektor

Or whatever combination you prefer.

The paper will be read in class as part of your semester test.



To The Ships, O Achaians

Week of November 28--December 2



Poised to Press to the End of the Iliad





Monday:  The Goal This Week is to Complete Our Reading Through Book 18

Discussion up through Book 11 (The Book of Wounds)
Overview or Preview of Book 12
Discussion of the PAPER--The Aristeia of Humanities Students in their Kleos

***Tonight:  Read Books 13 and 14***

Tuesday:  Book 12 Hektor smashes through the gates

Book 13  The Greeks rally and Poseidon encourages the Achaians
Book 14  Nestor meets wit the wounded Heroes; meanwhile, Zeus is distracted from the Trojan War

THE PAPER:  ideas, thoughts, initial plans...the brainstorming of the gates of lethargy.

***Tonight:  Read Books 15-16***

Wednesday:  Book 15  Hektor's Aristeia continues as he breaks through to the ships

Book 16  THE TURNING POINT OF THE ILIAD
What can Dr. Leithart show us?  Will he help us with our papers?

***Tonight:  With fires blazing at the very black ships, read Book 17  (or get caught up).***

Thursday:  Book 17 The Fight for the Body of Patroklos

Writing about The Iliad--Students rush in where epic poets fear to tread.

***Tonight:  With tears shed for Patroklos, read Book 18***

Friday:  Book 18      THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES

Read it, discuss it, explain it, and draw it.

We Will Finish The Iliad Next Week.

BE READY FOR A TEST ANY DAY AND EVERY DAY.

Write a brief journal entry after reading each book.  At home, on your own, to have and hold in class, for a possible grade.

"When modern readers ask what makes men and women keep reading the Iliad....Surely the answer lies in the unsparing beauty of the heroic vision that the poem perennially renews: it inspires heroic enterprises, whether the conquest of nations, explorations of consciousness or massive literary undertakings. To make the poem one's own is to enter the dimension of the heroic imagination, and the Iliad is able to issue the liberating call to such heroic possibility with less cultural or historical static than any other work one could name."

Glenn Arbery, "Soul and Image: The Single Honor of Achilles" 

Of Arms and Armaments--Battling with Spears and Rhetoric

Assignments for the week of November 14-18

This vase paints shows Diomedes (left), being aided by Athena, attacking Aeneas (right), being protected by Aprhodite.

Monday:  Discussion of The Iliad

Tuesday:  Visiting Teacher Dave Richardson:  The Greek Language--From Homer to the New Testament

Wednesday:  A wily surprise test on unsuspecting Trojans.

                     Discussion of The Iliad,

                      including the fine poetry ending Book 8

Thursday:    Words of Wisdom from Glenn Arbery concerning the Iliad, of course, and the topic of honor.

                     A pleasant retake of unpleasant tests on Book 3 and 4
               
Friday:  A Discussion of the Exemplary Rhetorical Discourses of Book 9

A Note from Agamemnon to the Achaians:

As a lion that stalks a hapless deer for days without obtaining a meal,

So we have lingered too long by the ships and have not pressed against the gates

of far-reaching Ilion, on the plains beyond the river Skamandros.

With times of feasting and respite before us in the days ahead, yet we must be armed

for dark days loom ahead and the mist of illiteracy unless we take up the ashen spear.

Meaning, folks, we will need to be on Book 18 by the end of the next week of school.

Notable Quotables:

"My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through the eyes of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented. I regret that the brutes cannot write books. Very gladly would I learn what face things present to a mouse or a bee; more gladly still would I perceive the olfactory world charged with all the information and emotion it carries for a dog....

"But in reading great literature, I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see.  Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, in knowing, I transcend myself, and am never more myself than when I do."
C. S. Lewis

Premiering on Friday, December 16

A

Western Christmas Corral

by

Ben House

As Written for the Humanities Class of Veritas Academy

With apologies to Mr. Charles Dickens, in hope that his heirs will not find out about this literary rustling.

Aresteia and Honor and the Bronze Ashen Spear

Assignments for the Week of November 7-11




Waging War Outside the Gates of Troy:  All in a Day's Work for Achaians



According to Homer, the Trojan War lasted ten years....It was the greatest war in history, involving at least 100,000 men in each army as well as 1,184 Greek ships....Ironically, the Iliad focuses on a pitched battle on the Trjan Plain, although most of the war was fought elsewhere and consisted of raids.  And the Iliad concentrates on only two months in the ninth year of the long conflict.

Barry Strauss, The Trojan War: A New History

Monday:
Discussion of Books 4 through 6:  The Wounding of Menelaus and the Aristeia of Diomedes.

Handout:  Key Issues from Books 3-5and Outline of Books 5 through 7

Tuesday:
 Opening Question:  What does it mean (or what might it have meant) for a mortal, like Diomedes, to wage war against not just the Trojan Army, but the Olympian gods themselves?
(How might it relate to the greater theme of the book?)

Book 6:  Key Achaian Victories and Hektor's Visit with Family

History from Spielvogel:  Survey Chapter 2, pages 30-48.  Write a one page synopsis of either Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, or Persians.

For Tonight:  Read Book 7 of the Iliad

Wednesday: 
Synopses of Synopses:  The Ancient Near East: Peoples and Empires in Brief

Discussion of Book 7 of the Iliad. 

For Tonight:  Read Book 8 of the Iliad
& Read Leithart's Discussion of Books 1--8 from Heros.

Thursday:
Role Playing:  The Class as Peter Leithart, discussing Books 1--8.

Into the History of Greece:  A Race Across Spielvogel, Chapter 3, "The Civilization of the Greeks."

A Chart:  10 Defining Statements About Greek Civilization

For Tonight:  Read Book 9 of the Iliad

Friday: 
The Epitome of Rhetoric:  The Envoy to Achilleus

More About Greek Civilization


Warning:  All Readers of The Iliad of Homer are subject to being given a test over the more recent readings, themes, ideas, notes, or discussions.  Read, think, listen, take notes, reflect, remember.

Agamemnon, Leader of Men, forward into battle

The Best and the Bravest Fighting Men

Assignments for October 31--November 4

"Homer is the poet of all ages, all races, and all moods. To the Greeks, the epics were not only the best romances, the richest poetry; not only their oldest documents about their own history--they were also their Bible, their treasury of religious traditions and moral teaching.   With the Bible and Shakespeare, the Homeric poems are the best training for life."
from Andrew Lang's essay, "Homeric and the Study of Greek"

Monday
Thoughts taken from Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners by Clyde Pharr
Characteristics of Epic Poetry
Questions and Discussion Points about Book 2
Discussion of Thersites

Tuesday
Continuation of the Discussion of Book 2
Discussion of Book 3
By Now, You Should Know Nearly All the Main Characters
Characteristics of Epic Poetry Quiz

Wednesday
Book 4


Thursday
Book 5

Friday
Book 6

 

When First There Stood in Division of Conflict...Achilles and Agamemnon

Assignments for the Week of October 24-28




And the will of Zeus was accomplished since that time when first there stood in division of conflict Atreus' son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus.



 Painting above is by William Page, 1811-1885

http://americangallery.wordpress.com/2010/08/01/william-page-1811-1885/

"By the general consent of criticks, the first praise of genius is due to the writer of an epick poem, as it reqireds an assemblage of all the powers which are singly sufficient for other compositions."

Dr. Samuel Johnson

Monday:  Scholarly insights from an insightful scholar.

The Trojan War as a Whole--As Told by Edith Hamilton and Others

Glenn Arbery on The Iliad

Close Reading of Book One

Tuesday:  Scholarly insights from an insightful scholar.

Continue with the Trojan War

Finish with Book One and yet....

Wednesday:  Scholarly insights from an insightful scholar.

Test over Book One

Begin Discussion and Close Reading of Book Two

Thursday:  Scholarly insights from an insightful scholar.

Further exploration of Book Two

Preview of Book Three

Friday:  Scholarly insights from an insightful scholar.

Short, but formal and brilliant, paper containing a character sketch from Book One.

Readings for the Week:

Homer's Iliad--Books 2--3

Edith Hamilton's Mythology--Part Four--The Trojan War

Peter Leithart--Heroes of the City of Man--Ancient Epic, pages 43--51

How to Experience Poetic Beauty

Flee techno-gimickry and distraction.

Find a setting both aesthetic and comfortable.

Find a beverage that is robust and caffeinated.

Read with a desire to find what Allen Tate called "Knowledge carried to the heart."

Read aloud, re-read.

Supplement the assignments with other readings.

Notable and Quotable

The French poet and novelist Raymond Queneau (1903-1978) opined, "Every great work of literature is either The Iliad, that is, a story of conflict, strife, battle and war,  or The Odyssey, that is, a story of a journey or exile and, after much wandering, a homecoming."

The extraordinary power of The Iliad, Alberto Manguel says, comes from the fact that it holds in tension two truths: our fascination with war and our abhorrence of its cruelty: "Homer fully understood our ambiguous relationship to violence, our desire for it and our hatred of it, the beauty we ascribe to it and the horror it makes us feel."

From an Amazon reviewer on Alberto Manguel's Homer's the Iliad and the Odyssey: A Biography.

Robert Fagels' translations of Homer's epics.

Meet Homer...and Tremble

Assignments for the Week of October 17-21

The Father of Epic Poetry

Seven cities warred for Homer, being dead,
Who, living, had no roof to shroud his head.

Thomas Heywood in The Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels, 1635.

Monday
Book Reviews and Updates
Leitharts and Heavy Thoughts on Hesiod's Theogony
The Search for the Trojan War
A Visitor from our extension campus--Wheaton College

Readings: 
Student's Guide and Hesiod are now past due.
Get Leithart's introduction finished tonight.
Background materials for The Iliad

Tuesday
Guest Lecturer:  Martin Rizley
Genesis 10 and Background to the Nations
Read Book 1 of The Iliad for Thursday

Wednesday
No School Today in Honor of Veritas 2000 Graduate Zachary Ramsey
"Mr. House, how are you going to teach literature after we graduate?"
I have been trying to answer that question since 2000.

Thursday
Book One of The Iliad

wRATH!

Friday
Further efforts to unpack Book One of The Iliad

Read Books Two and Three by Tuesday of Next Week

But how did you come to have this skill about Homer only, and not about Hesiod or the other poets? Does not Homer speak of the same themes which all other poets handle? Is not war his great argument? and does he not speak of human society and of intercourse of men, good and bad, skilled and unskilled, and of the gods conversing with one another and with mankind, and about what happens in heaven and in the world below, and the generations of gods and heroes? Are not these the themes of which Homer sings?

Socrates, quoted in The Dialoges of Plato

Works and Days--Past and Present



Digging into the archeology of Books

Monday:  Columbus discovered what the Ancient Phoenicians already knew quite well: The Huge Continents between Europe and Asia.

Tuesday:  Brief discussion of Hesiod and Bruce Thornton

Read from Spielvogel, Chapter 1, regarding Egypt; write 10 facts or questions about Egypt.

Wednesday:  Test over Egypt

Discussion of readings.



Helpful Overview of the Writings from Antiquity



A Poet Who Preceded Homer

Thursday:  Journal Entry:  What I realized after reading...Hesiod or Thornton.

Looking closer at Hesiod. 

Prepare for a test over Mesopotamia and Egypt

Friday:  A Test over Mesopotamia and Egypt

Gleaning from Peter Leithart.

With ideas and literature, the confrontation between the Bible and paganism will be more intense, but with great care and wisdom, we can plunder even pagan literature and make it work for us.  As Proverbs says, the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous  (Proverbs 13:22). 

From Heroes in the City of Man, pages 19-20.

Evaluating Jerusalem and Athens

Assignments for the Week of 3-7



How Should Christians View Ancient Literature?

Monday:  The Historical Context of the Ancient World

A Survey of Mesopotamia and Egypt
Jackson Spielvogel, Western Civilization,  pages 6-29

Literature of the Ancient World
Peter Leithart, Heroes of the City of Man

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the World of Mesopotamia

Tuesday: The Historical Context of the Ancient World

A Survey of Mesopotamia and Egypt
Jackson Spielvogel, Western Civilization,  pages 6-29

Literature of the Ancient World
Peter Leithart, Heroes of the City of Man

Joseph and the World of Ancient Egypt

Wednesday:
In-class Writing Assignment on Primeval Saints by James Jordan

Continue
Literature of the Ancient World
Peter Leithart, Heroes of the City of Man

Thursday:  Classwork on Western Civilization, 6--29

Continue with Leithart.

Friday:  Read Papers in Class on Greek Mythological Figures and Biblical Characters

"Here were two races, each very conscious of being different from its neighbors, living not very far apart, yet for the most part in complete ignorance of each other and influenceing each other not at all until the period follwoing Alexander's conquests....Yet it was the fusion of what was most characteristic in these two cultures--the religious earnestness of the Hebrews with the reason and humanity of the Greeks--which was to form the basis of later European culture, the Christian religion."

H.D.F. Kitto, The Greeks, page 8

Covenant Heroes and Lesser Known Greek Myths

Assignments for the Week of September 26-30

Isaac Blesses Jacob

Monday:
          Test Over Mythological Figures 
          Work on The Paper:  Characters to Contrast
           Discuss the Paper

Tuesday:
          Second Attempts at Test Over Mythological Figures
          Work on The Paper:  Writing an Introductory Paragraph

            Discuss the Royal Houses of Thebes and Athens
            Discuss Isaac and Jacob

Wednesday:
             Work on The Paper:  The Thesis Sentence, Concrete Particulars, and Commentary
              Grade Roundup:  Check Tests and Check Readings

               Discuss Shorter Myths
                The Story of Joseph
             
 Thursday:
                In-class Writing Time
               Continue Discussing Shorter Myths
                
                 Continue with the Story of Joseph and Pharoah

Friday: 
                 Peer Reviews of Papers

                  Wrap up discussions of Greek figures and Biblical characters.

Reading Assignments for the Week:

From Edith Hamilton, Mythology:  Read Part 6--The Less Important Myths

From James Jordan, Primeval Saints:  Finish the Book!

"Several times Paul quotes from pagan poets, just as he quotes from the Old Testament to prove a theological point....Since Paul did not have a Bartlett's Familiar Quotations to aid him, we would have to conclude that he had a firsthand acquaintance with Greek literature, including its fiction, and knew parts of it by heart.  The principle that emerges is that the Bible affirms, in a variety of ways, the value of reading literature, since it tells us things that are true and worth knowing."

Leland Ryken, Culture in Christian Perspective

The Rise of Fall of Greek Houses and Biblical Patriarchs

Assignments for the Week of September 19-23

Poseidon with his trident

Monday:  Discussion of Great Adventures and of Four Great Heroes Before the Trojan War

Class Presentations

Tuesday:  What was Hercules' problem?

Handouts on Mythology.

Wednesday:  From Cain to Nimrod--Biblical Patterns of Faith and Rebellion

Work on handouts.

Thursday:  William Faulkner and the Fall of Greek Mythological Families

Work on handouts.

Friday:  A More Extensive Test over .....

Comparisons between Greeks and Jews

Be mentally preparing for a paper next week comparing one Greek figure with a person from Genesis.

Readings for the Week:

From Mythology:  Part Five--the Great Families of Mythology

From Primeval Saints:  Chapters 2-5

Genesis:  Scan and review.

A Quote to Note: 

"We have all been programmed by our Creator with a desire to seek and yearn after the God who is truth. If it is true, as Paul teaches in Acts 17:26-28, that we are all made in His image, that He is not far from us, that in Him we live and move and have our being, then it must also be true that those timeless works of ancient Greece and Rome that record the musings of humanity's greatest seekers and yearners will contain traces, remnants and intimations of that widsom which made us."

Louis Markos, From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics

Coming Soon:  Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days, Leithart's Heroes in the City of Man, and Thornton's Student's Guide to the Classics.

Heroes Mythological and Mosaic

Assignments for the Week of September 12-16



Perseus triumphant over Medusa



Abraham's faith:  Preparing to Offer Isaac in obedience to God

 Monday:  Gods and Goddesses

The Story of Dionysus:  The God-Man of Greek Mythology, the God of Wine (freedom and brutality), and the hope of Eternal Life

Tuesday:   Tales of Love and Adventure

Looking for the Contrasts

Wednesday:  Test Over the 12 Olympians

The Quest for the Golden Fleece

Thursday:  Four Great Adventures

Primeval Saints: Studies in the Patriarchs of Genesis by James Jordan

Friday:  Four Great Heroes Before the Trojan War

Perseus                Theseus               Hercules                  Atalanta

Readings for the Week Include:

Edith Hamilton, Mythology, Parts 2 and 3

James Jordan, Primeval Saints, Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2

September 5-9 In the Lurky Realms of Origins and Myths

Assignments and Plans for the Week of September 5--9

Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated.
Thomas Bulfinch 

Classic Work on the Greek Myths--a Love Affair Between a Teacher and Her Subject

Monday:  Labor Day:  "Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day, I've got a wonder feeling about Humanities on Tuesday...."

Tuesday:  Omnibus Ancient World handout on Edith Hamilton's Mythology.

This Week, read Part One:  The Gods, The Creation, and the Earliest Heroes

Wednesday:  Surveying how the Historians Approach Origins:

Comparing Carleton J.H. Hayes and Jackson Spielvogel

Thursday:  Gods and Heroes

Friday:  Archeological Labors:  Gathering Artifacts of Civilization--a.k.a. Cleaning Up Downtown

We read Greek and Norse mythology until it came out of our ears. And the Bible.
Penelope Lively

Rumblings on the Horizon: Ancient and Classical World

When all else fails, read the teacher's book.

Humanities in the Summer--The Teacher's Work Never Ends

Workshop Outline for the ACCS Conference on June 16

 

Anticipated audience interaction with my talk


Here is the outline for my upcoming talk at the Conference for the Association of Classical Christian Schools in Atlanta, Georgia this coming Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Continue Reading....

 

Finished With Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov

Dostoevsky's Study where Brothers Karamazov was written

These members of the Veritas Modern World Humanities Class have now finished

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky:

1.  Liz Woll (Weekend)

2.  Wesley Daniel  (Monday night)

3.  Mr. House  (at 11:00 p.m. Tuesday night)

4.  Nicholas House (Thursday afternoon)

5.  George Hornok (Memorial Day)

6.  Eric Auel (June 30)

7.  Leah Duncan (the morning of June 30)

8.  Asher Wagnon (June 30)

And a most amazing student of Russian heritage is still plodding along, one paragraph at a time.

There is much gold to be mined in some of Dostoevsky's other great works:



What if Christ had merely been a man?




Good cannot result from evil actions



Read by the teacher in college many years ago.



Started, but never finished.



The Last Week of School

Monday, May 23--Thursday, May 26

So Many Books, So Little Time

Whoever ceases to be a student has never been a student.
     - George Iles

Monday:  Racing toward the finish line of The Brothers Dostoevsky.

If I am not in class, begin watching "Nicholas and Alexandra."

Tuesday:  A frightening test over The Brothers Karamazov.


Wednesday:  Semester Test, Part 1:

Bring a two page writing to class on this topic:  The Books That Made the Most Impact on My Thinking This Year.

Be prepared to write out a list of all the books we have read or read portions from.

Thursday: Semester Test, Part 2:  Questions and Answers Over Everything.


Friday:  Graduation

***Bonus Question for the Week:  Who Was Abraham Kuyper?***

You and Your Book and the Lake