Greek Philosophy Tour Newsletter



Greek Philosophy Tour Newsletter

A tour in thoughts, ideas, places, tastes and stories

Friday 6 December 2013, Issue 1

In this issue

Philosophy Pathways

 

Achilles, the angry hero


Food for thought

Famous Quotes from Ancient Greece


We speak Greek, we just don’t know it… yet


Traveling with Ancient Guides


A tour of the Acropolis with Pausanias


The Acropolis then… and today


Gastronomy


Ancient Greeks… gourmet Archestratos

A recipe from the depths of time: Staititae


Arts & Culture


Ancient Greek Love Poems

Sappho the Lesbian

 

A taste of Sappho’s poetry

Hymn to Aphrodite


The old & the new


Patras Opposite the Odeon

It’s all Greek to you? Not anymore


Amazing News


Free Harvard Course Online


The Ancient Greek Hero


Focus
in Reading


Greek Lyric, Volume I: Sappho and Alcaeus



Dear fellow travelers,

we send you this newsletter as a ticket that will take you to a journey to the ancient Greek thought and philosophy, because we strongly believe that we share a mutual love and interest. It is a philosophy that loves theoretical approaches but does not stick to them.

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Philosophy Pathways

Savoring ancient Greece I.


Achilles, the angry hero

Achilles

What happens when the main protagonist in your monumental poem gets angry at the very outset of the story and retires from the action?

Especially if he is the bravest of all the heroes and the outcome of fighting will be radically different without him? If that happens, then you compose the Iliad and you are Homer.

This is how the story goes. Achilles, the best of the
Achaeans, quarrels with Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army, over a beautiful maiden, Briseis. Agamemnon takes her from Achilles, who then…

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This is the Iliad, the first ever text of western literature, composed orally by Homer in the 8th c. BCE. This poem is not only a heroic epos but it raises important questions about the human condition: ‘how to define honor’ and ‘what are the limits of human heroism’. We also feel the unlimited power of…

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Food for thought

Famous Quotes from Ancient Greece

Πάντες ἄνθρωποι τοῦ εἰδέναι ὀρέγονται φύσει.

All men (Humans) by nature desire to know.

Aristotle,Metaphysics A1-2

The lecture “Introduction to Philosophy” by Gregory
Sadler at Marist College focuses on the first part of Aristotle’s Metaphysics bk. 1, ranging from the human desire for knowledge, the development of …

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And more food for thought…

Inscriptions from the temple of Apollo at Delphi

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——————————————-

We speak Greek, we just don’t know it… yet


The Greek language is one of the richest and most accurate languages in the world. It is considered to be a rather difficult language in
comprehension, reading and writing. But with 40.000 Greek words (or words of Greek origin), used today in the English language, varying, perhaps, a little in intonation or pronunciation, the Anglophones already speak Greek, they simply do not know it yet.

Let’s start from the
Alphabet & democracy

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The old & the new

Patras
Opposite the Odeon

Patras Odeon


Modern tastes in an ancient place

The old and the new are met in the west of the Acropolis, in the Upper city of Patras, where the Roman Odeon is.


Click here to read more…

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————————————


It’s all Greek to you? Not anymore

Greek Alphabet


Surprise your friends.
Speak and write in ancient Greek. It will all be Greek to them!

Here are some useful phrases in the ancient and the modern Greek language So, let’s start.

Click here to start…

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Travelling with Ancient Guides


A tour of the Acropolis with Pausanias,

a 1800 year old guide

AcropolisHello,

welcome to the Acropolis.

My name is Pausanias and
I come from Lydia in Asia Minor. I was born in the 2nd century AD and I am a traveler, a geographer and a writer. I have extensively traveled in Asia, Egypt, Greece and Italy, and described the marvels I have seen in those places.

I especially like to describe in detail places, monuments, buildings of all kinds, temples, walls and artworks and enrich them with customs, religious beliefs and rituals.

I was asked to guide you to the Acropolis, which is 700 years old and a vibrant part of the life of the
Athenians.

Plutarch, an important Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and a great traveler too, will be our companion.

So, follow us in our wandering.

Click here to follow Pausanias…

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Gastronomy

Ancient Greeks… gourmet

Gastronomy

Archestratus, was a Greek poet, born in Syracuse in the 4th century BC. In fact he invented the term Gastronomy, which in ancient Greek means the rules of the stomach. Archestratus, the first to approach cooking as an art, wrote the first cookbook called “Hedypatheia” (Life of Luxury).


Read more about Gastronomy and try a recipe from the Depths of
time…

Read:

    • The 5 Golden Rules of the Gastronomy Art

    • The flavours of the Ancients Cook and Taste


A recipe from the depths of time: Staititae

the soft dough is poured upon a frying pan and on it are spread honey, sesame and cheese’. Athenaeus, Vol 6

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Amazing News


Free
Harvard
Course
Online


The Ancient Greek Hero

Harvard


A survey of ancient Greek literature focusing on classical concepts of the hero and how they can inform our understanding of the human condition.

Two of the top universities in the world, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have created the edx, a massive open online course (MOOC)

read more about the course…

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Arts & Culture


Ancient Greek Love Poems

Sappho the Lesbian

Sappho


At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet
(πᾶς γοῦν ποιητής γίγνεται οὗ ἂν Ἔρως ἅψηται). Plato Symposium, para. 196e.

So love has always made people poets and ancient love poems have been discovered on every corner of the earth.

The most important poet of antiquity is considered to be Sappho of Lesbos, whose name has been connected with both lyric poetry and lesbian love… Yet, the close relationships of Sappho with her ​​students gave rise to sexual dimensions, which remained in history as “lesbian love”, a term that would mark the love between women ever since… However, in later times, Attic comedy writers parodied Sappho as both overly promiscuous and lesbian and the zeal of the early Christians, who turned against her with range, managed to destroy her writings.

read more about Sappho…

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A taste of Sappho’s poetry

Sappho's Poem

Hymn to Aphrodite


read the poem…

 

 


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FOCUS in Reading


Greek Lyric, Volume I: Sappho and Alcaeus

Harvard Book



Edited and translated by David A. Campbell

Harvard University Press, 1982 – Poetry – 492 pages

This volume contains the poetic fragments of the two illustrious singers of early sixth-century Lesbos: Sappho, the most famous woman poet of antiquity, whose main theme was love; and Alcaeus, poet of wine, war, and politics, and composer of short hymns to the gods.

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