This is what I suspect many will picture when they read the title above:
That’s Alma-Tadema’s famous painting, which hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
But an article in the Sacramento Press describes an event that conjures images of the frame story for a film adaptation of Homer which I’d once entertained:
Does an all-nighter eating lamb, reading Homer and dancing to Greek music sound like your idea of fun? East Sacramento resident Kathryn Hohlwein thinks it does. That’s why she formed The Readers of Homer in 1998: to stage all-night readings of Homer’s epics “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.”
. . . . .
After teaching it for years, she retired, and fans of her class on Homer wondered how they would be able to study the epics elsewhere. Greek American attorney George Spanos pitched her the idea.
“He asked me out for coffee and said, ‘I’ve always had this dream of doing all-night readings of Homer, people there having lamb on a spit,’ ” she said. “I’ve always given him credit over the years (because) it was his idea and I ran with it. He opened it in ancient Greek the first couple of readings.”
I’ve always thought it would be fitting to frame the bits of the story adapted by switching to and from various rhapsodic performances, a festival here, a private party there, a drunken gathering of tired travelers, and so on.
Spending a long night in the company of a hungry audience sounds right and so different from the usual experience.
The undergrads at UVa used to do that by the statue of Homer on the Lawn. They always seemed to have such a good time doing it.
A movie! Yes! Made for once by classicists! Can’t we all get together, hit up a couple of rich uncles, and make a decent ancient civ film? I end up showing Life of Brian every year (and will until I’m told I can’t) because it comes (as far as I’m concerned, anyway) the closest to the nasty, brutish, and short reality of the ancient world, where people are people, and life is just as oppressive. And I am constantly begging my students, especially the artistic types, to go and make a real movie of the Iliad, which, after all, already has a time, a place, and a theme. And violence, lots and lots of violence. But, then, again, I’ve met a couple of producers, and I can tell how unlikely it will be for any of them to let something real make it to the screen. But let’s unite, and try, anyway!