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Forum I: Hello

Let's identify who we are, what we like and do,
and what we want to accomplish in discussion forums
in Arts & Ideas.

Forum II: My Iliad (Homeric Circumstances)

Identify one specific Iliad passage which will help fellow students appreciate a particular Greek activity. Identify the Fagles page, Iliad Book and lines. Then explain in one paragraph why the passage attracted you and could attract your companions. Your classmates will then build on your perceptions.

Forum III: Iliad Highlights: Actions Worthy of Fame

Identify one specific scene where characters consider actions worthy of fame.

Forum IV: Crucial Encounters

Andromache meets Hector Iliad VI, 439ff (Fagles, p 208)

Glaucus Joins Sarpedon Iliad XII, ll 337ff (Fagles, p 334)

Hector Faces Achilles Iliad XXII, ll 293ff (Fagles, p 549)

Priam faces Achilles XXIV, ll 540ff (Fagles, p 603)

Forum V: Greek Recognitions (Tragic Insight)

Aeschylus' Agamemnon exposes audiences to characters who come to recognize they no longer inhabit a familiar world. That experience of dissonance in Agamemnon is the central action of this tragedy. Other characters, including Cassandra, Clytaemnestra and the Chorus also undergo recognitions. Show how recognition works  in one scene of your choice from the Agamemnon. Help us to see through Greek eyes, those of Agamemnon, of Cassandra, of Clytaemnestra or a member of the chorus.

Forum VI: Symposium Lovers

Characters in Plato's Symposium share their interests in love. Show how one specific character of your choice comes to view love, and how his or her view is more or less suited to the speaker's age, occupations, personality and interests. Then consider how Socrates' approach to love might refine the intitial view of that speaker.

Forum VII: Troilus & Criseyde (Falling in Love)

Troilus and Criseyde both begin as opponents of love. Select a particular moment and passage which shows how they become proponents of love.

Forum VIII: Machiavelli (Stories of Should and Is)

Machiavelli distinguishes stories of is from stories of should.
Demonstrate the difference between these forms of story-telling by showing how Machiavelli understands the development of one specific historical event.

Forum IX: Othello

Iago appears in Othello as a Satanic influence destroying
Othello and Desdemona, reducing love and harmony
to hate and dissonance. But he also appears as a subtle Venetian, respected as a shrewd judge of character and situation. Show how an understanding of Machiavelli can help a reader to appreciate Iago’s understanding of a particular scene in Othello, and his ability to shape the thoughts and actions of characters involved.