When: Monday, February 26, 2024 | 18:00
Where: Deree Faculty Lounge

Speaker: Tobias Myers, Associate Professor of Classics, Deree – The American College of Greece

Organized by: The Institute of Hellenic Culture and the Liberal Arts

About the Event

The Institute of Hellenic Culture and the Liberal Arts cordially invites you to its inaugural Hellenic Studies Seminar Series!

What can Homer tell us about self-knowledge? Quite a bit, one might think. After all, the Delphic maxim “Know yourself” (γνῶθι σεαυτόν) was deeply important for the tradition of ancient Greek philosophy and literature, over which Homer exercised unparalleled influence. However, phrases like “know yourself” are not only missing from the Homeric poems but, as recent scholarship has argued, possibly inexpressible in Homeric Greek. Moreover, whether Homer had any conception of the “self,” and if so, what it was, is itself a controversial topic in scholarship. This talk seeks to show that these apparent challenges are, in fact, clues, which we can follow through the vivid mirror of epic song to witness a uniquely Odyssean confrontation with ideas of self and self-knowledge.

The seminar is also accessible via Zoom. The link will be provided on the day of the event and sent via email to those opting for online participation.

After the seminar, there will be refreshments and light snacks.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected]

Bio of the Speaker

Tobias Myers, Associate Professor of Classics at Deree – The American College of Greece.

After receiving his PhD (with distinction) in Classics from Columbia University, Tobias taught as a Lecturer for two years in Columbia’s Core Curriculum, and at Connecticut College as an Assistant and then Associate Professor. In 2019, he was awarded Connecticut College’s John S. King Award for Excellence in Teaching. Tobias joined the Deree faculty in the Department of History, Philosophy and the Ancient World in 2021. In 2020-21, he helped build the new IHCLA as its first Associate Director. Tobias’ scholarly interests include Homeric Studies, Greek and Latin poetry, magic and religion, and the history of ideas. He currently spends a lot of time thinking and writing about self-knowledge and time and eternity—both as ideas manifest in Homeric poetry and from a first-person perspective.