COMMUNITY CALENDAR - St. John's College

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DEAN’S LECTURE AND CONCERT SERIES Please join us for the fall 2012 Dean’s Lecture and Concert Series. All lectures are free and open to the public. See details below for times and locations. The Sacrifice of Patroclus: Honor and Atrocity in Homer’s Iliad Claudia Honeywell, tutor, St. John’s College, Santa Fe Friday, August 31, 7:30 p.m. Worrell Lecture Great Hall, Peterson Student Center Plato, Aeschylus, and other ancient Greeks used the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus to symbolize the highest ideal of comradeship, the “boundless capacity for self-sacrifice” exhibited by comrades in battle. In Homer’s Iliad, we find many warriors willing to risk their lives to defend one another and recover the corpses of their fallen comrades. Yet Homeric comrades routinely kill to avenge one another as well, a behavior that the law of armed conflict today attempts to forbid. Achilles’ response to the death of Patroclus includes berserk killing, reprisal killing, killing of non-combatants, and the mutilation of the corpse. Ms. Honeywell will take a close look at the events leading to the death of Patroclus, in order to understand how the emotional demands of this martial relationship can spur a warrior to the most noble as well as the most savage deeds. Claudia Honeywell received her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Chicago in 1986 and a master of arts and doctorate in classics and modern Greek studies from the University of Minnesota in 1991 and 1993, respectively. Before joining the faculty of St. John’s College in 1994, she was visiting assistant professor of classics at Cornell College. Since 2010, she has been a distinguished visiting professor at the United States Air Force Academy. “Dying Twice”: An Examination of Odysseus’ Journey to Hades* Evanthia Speliotis, professor of philosophy, Bellarmine University Friday, September 7, 3:15 p.m. Worrell Lecture Great Hall, Peterson Student Center In Odyssey Book X, Circe informs Odysseus that he must travel to Hades before completing his journey home (X, 490-95). The reason for this, ostensibly, is so that Teiresias can tell Odysseus “the way to go, the stages of the journey, and … how to make [his] way home” (X, 538-40), making the visit to Hades central to the plot of the Odyssey. And yet, it appears to be much more than this. For one thing, it is virtually unheard of for a mortal to journey to Hades and return alive. For another, Homer devotes over 640 lines to this extraordinary event. Odysseus’ recounting of his visit to Hades begins with
Elpenor wishing to be remembered (XII, 71) and ends with Herakles reminiscing about his own journey to Hades to complete one of his labors (XI, 623-25). In between, Odysseus speaks with Teiresias, who tells him of a further labor he will have to perform after returning home; his mother, who informs him of some of the events unfolding at home in his absence; past queens, who speak of their “origins”; Agamemnon, who warns him against perfidious women; and Achilles, who laments that he is no longer among the living. Professor Speliotis will examine these characters and their tales to try to discover what Homer may be telling us about Odysseus’ particular journey (his return home), but, more importantly, what lessons he may be conveying about life and death to those of us who do not have the option of “dying twice” but who may learn from Odysseus’ having done so. *“Unhappy men, who went alive to the house of Hades, so dying twice, when all the rest of mankind die only once” (Circe, to Odysseus and his men, when they return from Hades to Aiaia: Odys XII, 21-22). Evanthia D. Speliotis earned a bachelor of arts in philosophy in 1982 from the University of Michigan, a master of arts in philosophy in 1989 from The Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in philosophy in 1995 from Tulane University. Prior to joining the faculty of Bellarmine University in 1994, she held academic positions at Tulane and Catholic University as well as at the University of New Orleans and Southern University of New Orleans. Professor Speliotis is currently working on a book entitled Phantastics and Philosophy: A Study of Plato’s Statesman. Artistic Expression in Animals Linda Wiener, tutor, St. John’s College, Santa Fe Friday, September 14, 8:00 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center This lecture focuses especially on artistic expression that does not lend itself easily to analysis in terms of survival and reproduction. Artistic expression is surprisingly widespread, occurring in animals ranging from protists to mammals. This includes music, collecting and decorating, fashion, disguise, and sheer inventiveness. Ms. Wiener will look at examples from nature and examine what biologists and philosophers, both ancient and modern, have to say. How might investigation into artistic expression in animals alter our understanding of nature and of ourselves? Linda Wiener joined the faculty of St. John’s College in 1985, after holding a number of academic positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Harvard University. Wiener earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from the University of Miami in 1977, a master of science degree in entomology from Colorado State University in 1979, and a doctorate in entomology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981. She also cofounded, in 1979, the Foundation for the Rediscovery and Protection of Trilobites.
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COMMUNITY CALENDAR - St. John's College

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