LEADER
Mark Cwik is a longtime seminar leader at Classical Pursuits. He specializes in literature from the ancient, mythic and religious world. Mark has organized and led great books seminars for adult readers for over three decades and is now managing director of Classical Pursuits’ partner organization Great Books Great Discussions (www.gbgd.org). He will be leading the CP Literary Retreat to Greece in March 2026.
BOOK
The Homeric Hymns: A Translation, with Introduction and Notes; by Diane Rayor; Updated Edition
(University of California Press, 2014)
ISBN-13: 978-0520282117
SEMINAR DESCRIPTION
From the very beginnings of their art and literature, the ancient Greeks wove lively stories of the Olympian gods. Most readers know the gods from the great Homeric epics— the Iliad and Odyssey, where divine intervention and heroic struggle shape the narrative. Much less well-known are the delightful and thought-provoking Homeric Hymns. These shorter poems—almost mini-epics—present close-up portraits of individual gods. In their compact and vivid explorations of the Olympians’ powers, passions, and prerogatives, the Hymns introduce us to the gods as living presences: beings who are fearsome, captivating, sometimes amusing, and always worthy of reverence.
In this four-week seminar, we will read and discuss the four great hymns: to Aphrodite, Apollo, Demeter, and Hermes. Each poem reads like a well-crafted short story, unfolding a lively narrative of divine action: Aphrodite’s humbling love affair with the mortal Anchises; Apollo’s exalted birth and the establishment of his oracle; Demeter’s grief at the abduction of her daughter Persephone; Hermes’ astonishing first day of life as trickster, thief, and lyre-maker. Together, these ancient tales of desire, loss, power, rebellion, and reconciliation among the gods enrich and expand our perception of the gods of the Greeks—and perhaps illuminate something enduring about our own experience in the human world.
This will be a read-as-we-go seminar, discussing one hymn per week. Each hymn is about the length of one book of the Iliad or Odyssey and can be read in an hour or 90 minutes.
PRACTICAL DETAILS
All online seminars are priced in Canadian dollars.
Once you register, you’ll get an order confirmation. We’ll send you the Zoom link and a welcome letter from your leader about 3 weeks before the seminar starts.
Classical Pursuits will record this seminar, and make each session privately available to registered participants for up to two weeks after that session.
Online seminar payments are nonrefundable.
Seminar group sizes are a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 12. See full terms and conditions for Classical Pursuits online seminars. By registering for a seminar, you agree to abide by our code of conduct.
