Gwen Minor

Podcast launch date: Monday, June 14, 2010.

First episode: The Iliad 20-30 minute podcast.

Leading the Greek forces against Troy is Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae. The goddess Artemis demands that he sacrifice his daughter. This Roman fresco shows the Sacrifice of Iphigenia. This act sets off a chain of events chronicled in some of the most wrenching stories ever told….

…..but I get ahead of myself! Find out why the doomed king had to do such a dirty deed in the maiden podcast of Ancient World Now!

Podcast launch date: Monday, June 14, 2010.

First episode: The Iliad 20-30 minute podcast.

Of course Aphrodite was deemed “the fairest”! And here she is with the golden apple.

Aphrodite
Greek, 200-150 BC
Bronze

Inventory # 96.AB.149

Here Aphrodite wears the fashion of the Hellenistic period (323-31 BC): platform sandals and a sheer cloak that reveals her undergarments and the contours of her body. In her outstretched hand she holds the apple that Paris, a Trojan prince, awarded her as a prize in a beauty contest with Hera and Athena. This contest eventually led to the most famed conflict in antiquity, the Trojan War.

Text from the Getty Villa museum label.

Podcast launch date: Monday, June 14, 2010.

First episode: The Iliad 20-30 minute podcast.

Hector takes leave of his wife and son before going into battle. Already in mourning, Andromache reminds her husband that her father, mother, and seven brothers were long ago killed and he is her only family. She pleads with him. From the Richmond Lattimore translation:

Hektor, thus you are father to me, and my honoured mother,
you are my brother, and you it is who are my young husband.
Please take pity upon me then, stay here on the rampart,
that you may not leave your child an orphan, your wife a widow…..

The baby cries with fear at the horsehair crest on the peak of Hector’s helmet. Hector, laughing, takes it off. One of the most poignant scenes in The Iliad. Find out the fate of Hector, Prince of Troy, in the maiden podcast of Ancient World Now.

Podcast launch date: Monday, June 14, 2010.

First episode: The Iliad 20-30 minute podcast.

Three goddesses and a shepherd from Mt. Ida. Sounds interesting,
n’est pas? Who was deemed “the fairest”, Hera, Aphrodite, or  Athena? Find out next Monday in the first episode of The Iliad.

Podcast launch date: Monday, June 14, 2010.

First episode: The Iliad 20-30 minute podcast.

This marble relief is from the Getty collection. Achilles and his mother are in a chariot and approach a group of worshippers along a road. The three rams are for sacrifice to Achilles. This piece is thought to be from Thessaly, where Achilles was born. Scholars believe he was worshipped there. Because Achilles was born of a mortal man and an immortal goddess, he was destined to die. However, Thetis did everything she could to keep him from harm. We refer to a person’s weakness of strength or character as their “Achilles’ heel”. Find out why in the first episode of Ancient World Now.

Podcast launch date: Monday, June 14, 2010.

First episode: The Iliad 20-30 minute podcast.

This tiny Greek figure is from the British Museum’s collection.
The Nereid goddess Thetis, mother of Achilles, is riding a dolphin buoyed up on the crest of a wave. She carries the arms of Achilles, newly fashioned by Hephaestus, god of fire and metal.

W.H. Auden wrote “The Shield of Achilles” (1952) in response to this passage from The Iliad.

Why was new armor made for Achilles? What was so special about this armor? Find out in ten days on the maiden podcast of Ancient World Now….

Podcast launch date: Monday, June 14, 2010.

First episode: The Iliad 20-30 minute podcast.

This bronze statue of Achilles is in Hyde Park, London. Built in 1822 as a tribute to Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, by “the Women of England”, it was cast from cannons won at the victories of
Salamanca, Vittoria, Toulouse, and Waterloo. The fig leaf was added later…the Victorians and all……

The Iliad means “The story of Ilium (Troy), but The Iliad is not the story of Troy, it is the story of Achilles. The story begins with these famous words:

“Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus
and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians…”

The great hero Achilles is miffed & lets everybody know it. Find out why in the first episode of Ancient World Now….

Podcast launch date: Monday, June 14, 2010.

Grammateus means “writer” in Greek.

Welcome to the blog!

Every season has its events. For the fall, my favorite event is San Francisco’s Litquake. This is Litquake’s 10th anniversary, so plenty of celebratory activities are planned. The eight-day festival culminates in the Lit Crawl, a 6-11 pm walk down Valencia/16th Street area stopping into cafes, bookstores, nightclubs, & even laundromats, to hear the spoken word. An event not to miss, as thousands of literary revelers crowd the Mission. Check out the line-up: http://www.litquake.org/

I’ll be doing a Litquake workshop for junior high students on Thursday, October 15th at the Main Library. With helmets and swords I’ll be introducing them to the Trojan War with my very own abbreviated version of The Iliad. By the time they leave the library they will know who was “the face that launched a thousand ships” and the original meaning of Achilles’ heel. Take a look at my book to see the full play used by teachers in their classrooms.