Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 43 minutes ago
This week Professor Nagy and the participants discuss lament and sentimentality in the Odyssey and Iliad. With lament at least, participants observed the genre's connection to pothos – or longing/yearning. Professor Nagy also pointed out how 'lament' and 'love song' have a way of interweaving in Greek and other traditions. Within this relationship, pothos certainly becomes a driving force of love song. Other themes explored in relation to lament was its structure or internal 'grammar' with the accompanying physical action and precision of language through repetitions and pairings. Participants also acknowledged the gendered differences in lament whereby the physiology of crying in men is different than it is in women. Interestingly, Achilles is found to cry physiologically in both ways. Participants also explored the varying ways in which sentimentality can be said to emerge in the tradition, as for instance in the meeting between Odysseus and his father; Achilles and Phoenix's relationship; and Nestor's advice to his son. Other topics include the primacy of the hero cult; pan-Hellenism as a tendency rather than absolute; and ancestral connections.
Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 14 and 15, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, and members of the HeroesX Team.
This week Professor Nagy and the participants discuss lament and sentimentality in the Odyssey and Iliad. With lament at least, participants observed the genre's connection to pothos – or longing/yearning. Professor Nagy also pointed out how 'lament' and 'love song' have a way of interweaving in Greek and other traditions. Within this relationship, pothos certainly becomes a driving force of love song. Other themes explored in relation to lament was its structure or internal 'grammar' with the accompanying physical action and precision of language through repetitions and pairings. Participants also acknowledged the gendered differences in lament whereby the physiology of crying in men is different than it is in women. Interestingly, Achilles is found to cry physiologically in both ways. Participants also explored the varying ways in which sentimentality can be said to emerge in the tradition, as for instance in the meeting between Odysseus and his father; Achilles and Phoenix's relationship; and Nestor's advice to his son. Other topics include the primacy of the hero cult; pan-Hellenism as a tendency rather than absolute; and ancestral connections.
Recorded in Spring 2020 during v13 of the MOOC The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, focusing on Hours 14 and 15, and responses to the Discussion Questions.
With Gregory Nagy, Keith DeStone, and members of the HeroesX Team.
