The colloquy will be an in-depth reading of Homer’s Odyssey. This will conclude Colloquy Downeast participants’ collective reading of the “Holy Trinity” of Western secular foundational texts — Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Vergil’s Aeneid.  

Topics for discussion will include oral tradition and oral poetics; the historicity of the Odyssey; narrative and storytelling; ancient heroism; travel and nostalgia; the “distaff side” and her implications.

The Colloquy will read and discuss six, of the twenty four Books, at each of the four sessions. 

Brendon Reay is a Classicist. He graduated from Reed College in 1987 with a B.A. in Classics, earned his M.A. in Latin at Bryn Mawr College in 1993, and his Ph.D. in Classical Studies from Stanford University in 1998. Brendon has taught Greek and Latin language from beginning to advanced levels, and courses in Greek and Latin literature, history, and politics. His research has focused mainly on Roman agricultural literature and history, and ideas of Roman nationhood and selfhood. He and his family have lived in Blue Hill since 2018.

  ▼ Syllabus/Reading