What we’re about
BCE is a literary conversation group where we read together “classic” texts in a broad sense, from before the Christian era, anything loosely before/during the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine I (272–337), his successor and son Constantius II and his nephew, Julian the Apostate, who rejected Christianity and promoted Neoplatonic Hellenism as a philosophy, and the worship of the traditional Roman gods as ritual practice.
BCE expects participants to have read the text and have formulated questions for discussion and have marked a few passages that we can read aloud and discuss. Participants have the same edition in front of them so they can create a common experience.
Examples of texts we can take on: Seneca, Lucan, the epic of Gilgamesh, the Hebrew book of Genesis, the plays of Aristophanes, Homer’s Odyssey, Ovid, Song of Songs, or the Egyptian Story of Sinuhe.
Upcoming events
4
•Online108: Aristophanes: The Frogs
OnlineThe Frogs (Ancient Greek: Βάτραχοι, romanized: Bátrakhoi; Latin: Ranae, often abbreviated Ran. or Ra.) is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus in Athens, in 405 BC and received first place.
"The play features the comical journey to the underworld of the god of theater Dionysus, with his slave Xanthias, in order to revive the late tragedian Euripides.
Dionysus is frustrated with tragedy's decline in quality after the playwright's recent passing, and concerned about theatre's future as the city of Athens struggles in the Peloponnesian War.
During the pair's journey through the underworld, the god cravenly and unsuccessfully attempts to evade trouble after masquerading as Heracles, still infamous for his prior kidnapping of the guard-dog Cerberus." (more)
We'll be using the translation included in Frogs and Other Plays (Penguin Classics, 2007), Shomit Dutta (Editor, Introduction).
Shomit Dutta's introduction discusses Aristophanes' life, the cultural context of his work and conventions of Greek comedy. This updated version of David Barrett's translation also includes extensive notes and a preface for each play.
The Greek text, edited by F.W. Hall and W.M. Geldart, is online on the Perseus Hopper at https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0031
6 attendees
•Online109: Aristophanes: Thesmophoriazusae
OnlineThesmophoriazusae (Ancient Greek: Θεσμοφοριάζουσαι; Thesmophoriazousai, lit. 'women celebrating the festival of the Thesmophoria'), or Women at the Thesmophoria (sometimes also called The Poet and the Women), is one of eleven surviving comedy plays by Aristophanes. It was first produced in 411 BC, probably at the City Dionysia.
"The play's focuses include the subversive role of women in a male-dominated society; the vanity of contemporary poets, such as the tragic playwrights Euripides and Agathon; and the shameless, enterprising vulgarity of an ordinary Athenian, as represented in this play by the protagonist, Mnesilochus." (more)
We'll be using the translation included in Frogs and Other Plays (Penguin Classics, 2007), Shomit Dutta (Editor, Introduction).
Shomit Dutta's introduction discusses Aristophanes' life, the cultural context of his work and conventions of Greek comedy. This updated version of David Barrett's translation also includes extensive notes and a preface for each play.
The Greek text, edited by F.W. Hall and W.M. Geldart, is online on the Perseus Hopper at https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0031
6 attendees
•Online110: Euripides: Cyclops
OnlineCyclops (Ancient Greek: Κύκλωψ, Kyklōps) is an ancient Greek satyr play by Euripides, based closely on an episode from Homer's Odyssey. It is the only complete satyr play that has survived the rages of time and neglect.
NB Cyclops is a singular noun. The plural of cyclops is typically cyclopes
"Satyr plays were presented as a lighthearted follow-up after each trilogy of tragedies at the Athenian Dionysia drama festivals to release the tragic tension of the preceding plays. The heroes would speak in tragic iambic verse, apparently taking their own situation very seriously, as contrasted with the flippant, irreverent and obscene remarks and antics of the satyrs. The dances used were usually characterized by violent and rapid movements, parodying and caricaturing the noble and graceful dances of the tragedies." More.
We'll be using the translation by William Arrowsmith in Euripides V: Bacchae, Iphigenia in Aulis, The Cyclops, Rhesus (The Complete Greek Tragedies) Paperback – Published on April 19, 2013. Mark Griffith (Editor, Translator), Glenn W. Most (Editor, Translator), David Grene (Editor, Translator), Richmond Lattimore (Editor, Translator).
The Greek text edited by David Kovacs is online here. His English translation from 1994 is here.
7 attendees
•Online111: The Odysseiana Series
OnlineFor this series on Homer's Odyssey we will be using the new translation by Daniel Mendelsohn: Homer: The Odyssey. Translated, with Introduction and Notes. University of Chicago Press, April 9th, 2025.
This translation is also available on Kindle and as an audio book. About Daniel Mendelsohn read here.
If you have already own the 2018 Emily Wilson translation keep this at hand for comparison.
Here are some remarks by Mendelsohn on Emily Wilson's translation. And Joyce Carol Oates's observations (with followup by other posters on https://www.reddit.com/r/classicliterature/ )
6 attendees
Past events
108
