Lyric Poetry is Focus of Faculty Seminar

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Lyric poetry—and how to make it more accessible to undergraduate students—was the theme of the sixth annual seminar on “Ancient Greece in the Modern College Classroom” cosponsored by the Center for Hellenic Studies and the Council of Independent Colleges. The August 9–13, 2011, seminar was held at the Center’s campus in Washington, DC, with generous support from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Eighteen full-time CIC faculty members were selected to participate from nearly 60 nominations.

The Center’s director, Gregory Nagy, who is also Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and professor of comparative literature at Harvard University, and Kenneth Scott Morrell, associate professor of Greek and Roman studies at Rhodes College (TN), led the seminar.

Designed primarily for faculty members who have not had formal training in ancient Greek literature, the seminar explored the contextual differences between epic and lyric poetry as well as the relationship between the production of poetry and the displays of power and influence among prominent families who dominated the political landscape of the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. In addition, participants discussed the complex of traditional narratives and oral traditions that gave rise to the poems, examined some of the parallels in other ancient cultures, learned about the historical and archaeological contexts of the poems, and traced some of the images and elements of the poems in later poetic traditions, especially those in the Roman world.

Participants offered a variety of strategies they’ve used to incorporate the materials in a wide range of curricula. Assistant professor of political science at Goucher College (MD), Rachel Templer, shared the feelings of many of the participants when she said, “It was wonderful to feel like a student again. The seminar reproduced the kind of intense and focused intellectual stimulation we enjoyed in graduate school. As well as giving us all a great introduction to material that might be used in our courses, the seminar week was really energizing for everyone I talked to and many people were inspired to start working on new ideas during the week.”