[dfwgator]

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I’ve been reading these works all my life, because I enjoy them. I am now working on Virgil’s AENEID again.

[onedoug]

“A little Latin and less Greek,” as was said of Shakespeare’s education.

[Buttons12]

Cherished memories of homeschool — the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Supposedly by the same poet, they are entirely different. Iliad: men at war, victory, glory, defeat, honor.
Then in the Odyssey, a man done with war, his heart’s desire to return to his wife and home.

There is a song by Rod Stewart, “Rhythm of My Heart,” that conveys the longing of Odysseus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVeZsG-9wVE

And since my teacher was wise, the studies included a little “sequel.” Tennyson’s Ulysses. It seems no man is ever quite content, even with his heart’s desire. His tribe “know not me.” His fellow mariners know. The call to heroism endures in his twilight years.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45392/ulysses

Man is a paradox.

[Verginius Rufus]

No mention of Jonathan Shay's excellent book, Achilles in Vietnam. Shay is a physician who has treated Vietnam veterans who were suffering from post-traumatic stress, and draws insights from Homer.