For a lot of people, reading “The Iliad,” an ancient Greek epic poem by Homer, would be a weeks or even months-long endeavor. Junior MG King and senior Thomas Nemec, consuls of the Colgate University Classics Society, however, envisioned a space in which this poem would be read in one day — a “Homerathon,” if you will.
Unlike a regular marathon, this reading did not take three to five hours. Students and professors alike exhibited endurance as they sat in the W.H. Gifford Classics Center from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3. This 14-hour endeavor was sustained with three meals from Flour and Salt, Hamilton Eatery and Oliveri’s Pizzeria. Some attendees trickled in and out, needing a breath of fresh air or to grind out some homework, but organizers King and Nemec were present from beginning to end, rhythmically pounding on drums to fully immerse the room in ancient oral traditions.
King and Nemec were inspired by Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing Tom Clayton’s annual Miltonathon, a marathon reading of Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” The Classics Society initially hosted a group reading of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” last spring to test the waters of attendance, and when they had a great turnout, they decided that they needed to make a marathon reading of “The Iliad” happen.
“It’s something that a lot of universities do,” King said. “It’s kind of cute because Homer originally was shared by the oral tradition, and over time, people stop reading ‘Homer’ out loud because of the way that we study it in school. It’s just not feasible to sit down for nine hours and read it out loud, but that’s how these poems are supposed to be read, really. You’re not going to get it if you’re just sitting in silence, reading words on a page. It’s meant to be performed.”
And performed it was. Between each book, parts were assigned to attendees who got into character with exaggerated voices. Associate Professor of Classics Geoffrey Benson played the role of Achilles a few times, standing up to deliver his lines with the wrath and rage that consumed Achilles in a way that could never be conveyed through a silent reading.
“When you’re reading it just for your class, you’re extremely bored and just skimming it,” King said. “All these words sound the same, but all these characters have personality. There’s so much emotion in the poem that I think can only really be brought out if you’re a really close reader or you’re reading it out loud.”
Clayton, with his passion for prolonged readings, attended the event and was struck by the performances.
“I was so impressed with the energy and enthusiasm the students brought to the reading,” Clayton said. “From their performances, I heard more of the poem’s dark humor and ferocity than I ever have before. And I loved the drum!”
It was important to the consuls that everybody, from all academic disciplines, felt welcomed. Studying the classics can be overwhelming since it requires such a complex understanding of language, history and culture. While the consuls admittedly do believe in the necessity of approaching the classics from an academic lens, they also feel that all people should be able to learn from ancient histories.
“You get to take part in the reading, not just be there and sit through a boring lecture,” Nemec said. “I think that that is more likely to give somebody an interest that they might not have had before. Maybe somebody likes archaeology, maybe somebody likes history or maybe somebody just likes Percy Jackson. If they come to the Homerathon, because of that, they’re going to come out having learned something about a larger part of the world, a larger part of history. And I think that’s really what the goal is, to give somebody something every time they come to our meetings.”
Creating a space where academia is accessible is important to the Classics Society. When King and Nemec got to Colgate, the Classics Society was not as active, but they found that there was a profound interest in the classics among their peers that they wanted to foster.
“I think the people in my year and the year below have a market interest in this sort of thing,” King said. “[Nemec] and I are super passionate about this stuff, and we love everything about it, the language and all, but a lot of the stuff in a formal academic setting is a big barrier for a lot of people to get into it. I have a lot of friends who are not in classics, not in the humanities at all, who are regular attendees. They’re like, ‘oh, I can’t wait for the next Classics Society meeting.’”
If you happen to be one of those people wondering when the next Classics Society meeting is, be sure to follow their Instagram @colgateclassics and check the Colgate events calendar regularly.
