More than 60 Ave Maria University students and professors took turns at a microphone for 24 hours beginning Friday evening, participating in a "Homerathon" – a reading of the entire epic poem The Iliad.
Sporting lime-green t-shirts with a logo on the back warning, "Caution, watch for spears," the readers emoted all 15,693 lines of the poem about the Trojan War written by Homer about 2,800 years ago.
The work was brought to life not just by the passion of the readers, but by the modern translation of the ancient poem by Dr. Stanley Lombardo (below left), a University of Kansas classics professor who updated The Iliad so that it could be more easily be understood orally, as it originally was intended. Dr. Lombardo concluded the Homerathon with a stirring reading himself of the final, 24th book.
The new translation removes the often stilted language and sentence construction of earlier translations, replacing it with how people speak in the 21st century. For example, in Book One, in a traditional translation by Samuel Butler, Zeus, the ruler of the Greek gods, tells his wife angrily to "sit down and hold your tongue as I bid you." In Dr. Lombardo's version, Zeus shouts, "So sit down and shut up and do as I say." Later, the warlord Agamemnon warns the warrior Achilles, "Don't try to put one over on me. It won't work." The Butler translation has it as, "You shal not thus outwit me. You shall not overreach and you shall not persuade me."
The readings were performed by students and faculty in groups ranging in size from two to 12 people. The members of each group determined themselves how to present each book. Many of the students were part of the Shakespeare in Performance class taught by Dr. Travis Curtright, during which they are schooled in the art of dramatic reading. Student Jen Davidson kept everything on schedule, staying up from the start of a faculty colloquium opening the event at 5 p.m., through her own reading at midnight, until Dr. Lombardo finished at 6 p.m. Saturday. "It was a fantastic experience," she said, looking as fresh and on Saturday as she did when the event started.
Dr. Lombardo listened to much of the reading and was impressed. Right, Dr. Lombardo is at center with Dr. Curtright left and Dr. Michael Dauphinais, VP of Academic Affairs, right.
"I have heard this read at many schools," he said, "and I'm sorry to say that it was not always enjoyable. Listening to these students was a pleasure."
His own reading of the final chapter, sitting alone at the front of the auditorium of the AMU academic building, kept the audience in rapt attention as he performed his practiced reading, occasionally tapping a small drum for emphasis.
Thanking everyone who participated, Dr. Lombardo said his brief time in Ave Maria gave him an appreciation for the school, which he said was "special, dare I say, unique."
"The students here so impressed me with their intelligence, their drive, their passion," he said.
"You can see it in their faces. I go to a lot of schools and the students are confused. Here, they are not confused."
Right, the auditorium was nearly full for the opening and closing, but the audience got a little sparse in the late hours.
More than 60 Ave Maria University students and professors took turns at a microphone for 24 hours beginning Friday evening, participating in a "Homerathon" – a reading of the entire epic poem The Iliad.
The new translation removes the often stilted language and sentence construction of earlier translations, replacing it with how people speak in the 21st century. For example, in Book One, in a traditional translation by Samuel Butler, Zeus, the ruler of the Greek gods, tells his wife angrily to "sit down and hold your tongue as I bid you." In Dr. Lombardo's version, Zeus shouts, "So sit down and shut up and do as I say." Later, the warlord Agamemnon warns the warrior Achilles, "Don't try to put one over on me. It won't work." The Butler translation has it as, "You shal not thus outwit me. You shall not overreach and you shall not persuade me."
Dr. Lombardo listened to much of the reading and was impressed. Right, Dr. Lombardo is at center with Dr. Curtright left and Dr. Michael Dauphinais, VP of Academic Affairs, right.
Thanking everyone who participated, Dr. Lombardo said his brief time in Ave Maria gave him an appreciation for the school, which he said was "special, dare I say, unique."
Right, the auditorium was nearly full for the opening and closing, but the audience got a little sparse in the late hours.