LIBRARY NOTES
Caroline Alexander & Simon Prebble
The Iliad: The Magic of the Spoken Word
Wednesday, January 22, 1997 at 5:30 PM
Members' Room; $25 per person
"But when he let the great voice go from his chest, and the words came drifting down like the winter snows, then no other mortal man beside could stand up against Odysseus."
Wednesday evenings, January 22 and 29, 1997, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. will be devoted to a reading and discussion of Homer's Iliad. The epic as we know it was composed some time in the mid-eighth century B.C., but was shaped by preceding centuries of oral transmission. It is therefore fitting that this great narrative poem be read aloud, allowing modern audiences to experience it as spoken word as well as written text. The presentations will be divided between a professional reading (of the Richmond Lattimore translation) by actor Simon Prebble and a discussion led by classicist Dr. Caroline Alexander.
Dr. Alexander will focus on specific passages of the epic, demonstrating how background mythology, historical events, archaeology, and comparisons with aspects of other cultures come to bear on the Homeric poem. Dr. Alexander was recently in Troy and will share some of its intriguing, recent finds. Spend these winter evenings listening to one of the oldest stories man has ever told.
Caroline Alexander received her doctorate in classics at Columbia University. Between 1982 and 1985, she established a department of classics in the small African nation of Malawi, an experience she described in a New Yorker article (December 16, 1991). Dr. Alexander has also contributed to such publications as Natural History, Smithsonian, Granta, and National Geographic.
Simon Prebble graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and has worked extensively in theatre, television, radio and film before concentrating on narration. When he relocated to America in 1990, Prebble returned to legitimate acting; he has also recorded over eighty unabridged audio books since coming here.
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