5-Week SASA Continuing Education Reading Group : DiscOdyssey - An Ancient Voyage Through Modern Sounds

Interdisciplinarity comes naturally to classicists. We are inveterately cross-cultural, in that we embrace Greek and Roman in a single field, with range stretching from from early hero cults and Orphic rites to the advent of Christianity. Given the broad scope of our studies, it is no surprise that we are tempted to further expand the horizons of our comparative investigations. Cue Classical Reception, which encompasses a myriad of modern pop culture monuments, from film, television, visual arts, prose, poetry and music.

‘DiscOdyssey’ will examine the ways in which modern artists across a range of genres utilize the classics in their works, and what their usage (and abusage) of this ancient material can say to us about our own experiences and knowledge of the classical world.

Using a variety of ancient sources, we delve into the insights these give us about ancient society, uncovering how core ideas - including kleos, timé,…