One Homer, or Two? Some Suggested Stylistic Separators in the Homeric Poems

How many Homers (if any)? This is a question that has bedevilled professional Hellenists since the Alexandrian period. Luckily, such misgivings have not, in general, disquieted students or casual readers, who simply read, study, and enjoy the two lengthy epic poems traditionally ascribed to a composer or, if you lower the date a little, an author, to whom generations have given the name “Homer.” In 1955 the distinguished British Classicist D. L. Page delivered a set of lectures at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, entitled The Homeric Odyssey whose main thesis was that the two epics were composed in separate places ( a fortiori by different authors), independently of each other. My project in the study that follows is to examine more closely the stylistic features called into court by Page to attest to the separateness of the two works in respect of authorship. My ulterior motive is to look for explanations of the discrepancies Page claims to have found on a hypothesis other than separate authorship. Page’s linguistic “separators,” as they might be termed, fall into several categories: dialectal, the words used and especially those with the intensifying prefix ἐρι- “exceedingly”; morphological, e.g. datives plural with the short termination -οις vs. the long -οισι; metrical, the lengthening (or not) of naturally short vowels before mute + liquid or nasal; lexical, words, phrases and formular expressions that are favoured by the Iliad and which might be expected to occur also in the Odyssey but don’t, and vice versa, words and formular phrases found exclusively or predominantly in the Odyssey but which are rare in or totally absent from the Iliad.

The Birth Of The Bryn Mawr College Black Studies Program And The Herbert Aptheker Appointment

In 1969, Bryn Mawr College hired the notorious Communist Herbert Aptheker to teach the inaugural course in what would become the Black Studies Program. Using primary sources, this essay examines the decision to hire Aptheker and what this decision can tell us about campus politics during the late-60’s/early-70’s. A sharp divide can be seen between conservative and leftist students, parents, alumnae, and even those unassociated with the College who felt it their civic or academic duty to object to or approve of the decision to hire Aptheker. As an institution of learning, Bryn Mawr’s decision of how to teach about those whose experiences have been marginalized deals with questions of who is telling whose history and how that history will be told – in particular, whether to instate a Black Studies Program with courses integrated into the general College curriculum, or have the courses separated in a potential Black Studies Department. Ultimately, this essay argues that the melee surrounding the Aptheker appointment was a product of the racial tension on-campus and amongst those with a stake in the History the College was constructing.

Poggio Bracciolini, Phyllis Goodhart Gordan, and the Formation of the Goodhart Collection of Fifteenth-Century Books at Bryn Mawr College

The Poggio Bracciolini conference was dedicated to Bryn Mawr alumna Phyllis Goodhart Gordan (1913-1994) one of the leading Poggio scholars of her generation and the editor of the only major collection of Poggio’s letters in English, Two Renaissance Book Hunters (Columbia University Press, 1974). Gordan and her father, Howard Lehman Goodhart (1887-1951) were also responsible for building one of the great collections of 15th century printed books in America, most of which is now at Bryn Mawr College. This paper draws upon Goodhart’s correspondence with rare book dealers and the extensive notes on his books to survey the strengths of the collection and to examine the process by which he built the collection and worked with rare book dealers in the difficult Depression and World War II years, the period when he acquired most of his books. The paper also considers Goodhart’s growing connections with scholars of early printing as his collection and interests grew, in particular the work of Margaret Bingham Stillwell, the editor of Incunabula in American Libraries (1940).

The Birth Of The Bryn Mawr College Black Studies Program And The Herbert Aptheker Appointment

In 1969, Bryn Mawr College hired the notorious Communist Herbert Aptheker to teach the inaugural course in what would become the Black Studies Program. Using primary sources, this essay examines the decision to hire Aptheker and what this decision can tell us about campus politics during the late-60’s/early-70’s. A sharp divide can be seen between conservative and leftist students, parents, alumnae, and even those unassociated with the College who felt it their civic or academic duty to object to or approve of the decision to hire Aptheker. As an institution of learning, Bryn Mawr’s decision of how to teach about those whose experiences have been marginalized deals with questions of who is telling whose history and how that history will be told – in particular, whether to instate a Black Studies Program with courses integrated into the general College curriculum, or have the courses separated in a potential Black Studies Department. Ultimately, this essay argues that the melee surrounding the Aptheker appointment was a product of the racial tension on-campus and amongst those with a stake in the History the College was constructing.

Eva Palmer Sikelianos

This is the first biography to tell the fascinating story of Eva Palmer Sikelianos (1874–1952), an American actor, director, composer, and weaver best known for reviving the Delphic Festivals. Yet, as this book reveals, Eva's most spectacular performance was her daily revival of ancient Greek life. For almost half a century, dressed in handmade Greek tunics and sandals, she sought to make modern life freer and more beautiful through a creative engagement with the ancients. Along the way, she crossed paths with other seminal modern artists. Eva was a wealthy New York debutante who studied Greek at Bryn Mawr College before turning her back on conventional society to live a lesbian life in Paris. She later followed Raymond Duncan (brother of Isadora) and his wife to Greece and married the Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos in 1907. With single-minded purpose, Eva recreated ancient art forms, staging Greek tragedy with her own choreography, costumes, and even music. Having exhausted her inheritance, she returned to the United States in 1933, was blacklisted for criticizing American imperialism during the Cold War, and was barred from returning to Greece until just before her death. This biography vividly recreates the unforgettable story of a remarkable nonconformist whom one contemporary described as “the only ancient Greek I ever knew.”