The Odyssey by Homer

In the Spring Semester the 10th grade will read The Odyssey / by Homer; translated by Robert Fagles.

 The library will have a reserve collection for English II projects. 

• Do you need to buy the Odyssey translated by Fagles? Amazon
• Our online catalog provides a first chapter excerpt when you click to "details".
• We have a number of nonfiction books and graphic novels to help understand Homer and his epic poems.

Ms. Akers recommendations:

• http://www.yale.edu/heyzeus/spring2004/zeus_sarah_price.pdf  (I highly recommend this article.)
• http://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/proceedings/1554oneWest.pdf 
• http://chs119.chs.harvard.edu/mpc/ 
• http://journal.oraltradition.org/ (You can seach The Oral Tradition journal for articles using this link.)

Additional Library Sources 

GALE - Search term "Homer Greek Poet"

• Maddox, Gregory H. "Oral Traditions: Telling, Sharing." New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Ed. Maryanne Cline Horowitz. Vol. 4. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005. 1667-1672. Gale Power Search. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.  Document URL - http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3424300555&v=2.1&u=tel_s_tsla&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w
• "Homer." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Gale Power Search. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CK1631003101&v=2.1&u=tel_s_tsla&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w
• "The Age of Homeric Epic." Arts and Humanities Through the Eras. Ed. Edward I. Bleiberg, et al. Vol. 2: Ancient Greece and Rome 1200 B.C.E.-476 C.E. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 122-126. Gale Power Search. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3427400243&v=2.1&u=tel_s_tsla&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

JSTOR  Search term "Homer Greek Poet"

• "Reading" Homer through Oral Tradition  John Miles Foley College Literature, Vol. 34, No. 2, Reading Homer in the 21st Century (Spring, 2007), pp. 1-28

• The Journal of Hellenic Studies Coverage: 1880-2011 (Vols. 1-131)  Links to External Content: 2012 (Vol. 132) Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies

Here are links to supplemental information about The Odyssey from Annenberg.

• Timeline and Map
• Glossary

My favorite new Mythology additions to the library collection this year.

Percy Jackson's Greek gods / by Rick Riordan (2014)

"A publisher in New York asked me to write down what I know about the Greek gods, and I was like, Can we do this anonymously? Because I don't need the Olympians mad at me again. But if it helps you to know your Greek gods, and survive an encounter with them if they ever show up in your face, then I guess writing all this down will be my good deed for the week."




Mythology / created by Basher; written by Mary Budzik. (2014)

Summary

"The myths and stories of the gods and goddesses of the ancient world have a timeless appeal that captures the attention of generation after generation of children. Basher History: Mythology is an information-packed introduction to Greek/Roman, Norse and ancient Egyptian mythologies. Meet Zeus, father of the Greek gods (and learn that the Romans knew him as Jupiter), Norse Freyja, goddess of love, beauty, war and death, and Egyptian Bastet, goddess of cats, along with many others. This unique and upbeat guide is a legend in the making."

Christmas Reading

Some Recent Favorites



Read in September, 2014:   There are several commonalities with Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and "The Jewel" by Amy Ewing. The Jewel has surrogate mothers who bear children for a "royal" class located in what seems to be a central city called the Jewel. This book does not however have the ritualized sex or sexual violence portrayed in "Handmaid's Tale". There is an element of magic in the book, but the most gripping scenes for me were from the human auction of surrogates.


THE WHITE ROSE  the second book in the Lone City trilogy will not be available until October 6, 2015

Read in June,  2012:  This "Fierce Read" left me wanting the sequel ASAP.  But I had to wait a year just like I have to wait for the second Ewing book above.  Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne is an apocalyptic / post-apocalyptic novel.  Most of the characters are children or teens, who survive a disaster and are taking refuge in a shopping mall.  Fortunately, this series is complete, and a good trilogy to read over the Holidays.

Visit with the three Webb Schools

Visit with the three Webb Schools 

Bell Buckle,TN - Claremont, CA - Knoxville,TN 

Julie Webb, Susan Howell [Webb archivist], Susie Webb Ries

On December 8, 2014 representatives from all three schools as well as members of the Webb family met to discuss our common traditions, and ways to preserve for posterity.

We created a display for the three schools and discussed upcoming milestones for the schools.

• Webb Bell Buckle's Sesquicentennial in 2020
• Webb California's Centennial in 2022.  

Video from the visit

When setting up the display we found information about the founding of each school in books.  These quotes were used in the display.

From "The School Maker" by Laurence McMillin
Regarding William R. "Sawney" Webb and John Maurice Webb founders of The Webb School of Bell Buckle

They had already decided to join forces and Sawney had acknowledged John to be the intellectual “star”: “In consequence of my failure to finish my course . . . I will have to do drudgery all my days and stick to the grammar & dictionary.  You will have to do the polishing for the firm of Webb & Company.”

At Horner’s in the fall of 1869, Captain Webb and a fellow teacher expatiated on an educational Utopia.

From "Thompson Webb: The Years at the Webb School 1922-1975" compiled by Thompson Webb, Jr. and Thompson Webb III
Regarding Thompson Webb founder of  Webb Schools of California [Sawney's son]
Ironically, Dad always said that the one thing that he didn’t want to do was to be a teacher.  He didn’t want to have anything to do with schools.  But when WWI came, the bottom dropped out of real estate in the Coachella Valley, and he sustained a devastating crop loss.  He was left with debts that forced him, first, to teaching in Bell Buckle for his father, W. R. “Sawney” Webb, and then to Claremont in 1922, where he started his own school on the grounds of the former Claremont School for Boys.  There he finally showed what he was really good at.  He could run a school, manage it well, and be admired for it.  He did not choose to be a schoolman; but once into administration, whether in summer camps or a school of his own, he found what he understood and did splendidly.




From "A Splendid Instinct" by Jack Neely
Regarding Bob Webb founder of Webb School of Knoxville [Sawney's grandson]

It was at Claremont that Webb began contemplating founding his own version of Webb School back in his hometown.  His aunt Vivian Webb was at 60 already something of a legend as the vivacious, tireless matriarch of Webb School of California.  “I talked more to Aunt Vivian than Uncle Thompson about starting the school.  She encouraged me to go ahead.”