Fifty years of reading Homer--both alone and with students--prepared Eva
Brann to bring the Odyssey and the Iliad back to life for today's
readers. In Homeric Moments, she brilliantly conveys the unique
delights of Homer's epics as she focuses on the crucial scenes, or
moments, that mark the high points of the narratives: Penelope and
Odysseus, faithful wife and returning husband, sit face to face at their
own hearth for the first time in twenty years; young Telemachus, with
his father Odysseus at his side, boldly confronts the angry suitors;
Achilles gives way to boundless grief at the death of his friend
Patroclus.
Eva Brann demonstrates a way of reading Homer's poems that yields up
their hidden treasures. With an alert eye for Homer's extraordinary
visual effects and a keen ear for the musicality of his language, she
helps the reader see the flickering campfires of the Greeks and hear the
roar of the surf and the singing of nymphs. In Homeric Moments, Brann
takes readers beneath the captivating surface of the poems to explore
the inner connections and layers of meaning that have made the epics the
marvel of the ages.
Written with wit and clarity, this book will be of value to those
reading the Odyssey and the Iliad for the first time and to those
teaching it to beginners.--Library Journal
Homeric Moments is a feast for the mind and the imagination, laid out
in clear and delicious prose. With Brann, old friends of Homer and new
acquaintances alike will rejoice in the beauty, and above all the
humanity, of the epics. --Jacob Howland, University of Tulsa, Author of
The Paradox of Political Philosophy
In Homeric Moments, Eva Brann lovingly leads us, as she has surely led
countless students, through the gallery of delights that is Homer's
poetry. Brann's enthusiasm is as infectious as her deep familiarity with
the works is illuminating.--Rachel Hadas
Brann invites us to enter a conversation [about Homer] in which
information and formal arguments jostle with appreciations and frank
conjectures and surmises to increase our pleasure and deepen the inward
dimension of our humanity.--Richard Freis, Millsaps College
For anyone eager to experience the profundity and charm of Homer's great
epic poems, Eva Brann's book will serve as a passionate and engaging
guide. Brann displays a deep sensitivity to the cadence and flow of
Homeric poetry, and the kind of knowing intimacy with its characters
that comes from years of teaching and contemplation. Her relaxed but
informative approach succeeds in conveying the grandeur of the great
Homeric heroes, while making them continually resonate for our own
lives. Brann helps us see that this poetry has an urgency for our own
era as much as it did for a distant past.--Ralph M. Rosen, University of
Pennsylvania, Author of Old Comedy and The Iambographic Tradition
The most enjoyable books about Homer are always written by those who
have read and taught him the most. Eva Brann's collection of astute
observations, unusual asides, and visual snapshots of the Iliad and
the Odyssey reveals a lifelong friendship with the poet, and is as
pleasurable as it is informative. Homeric Moments is rare erudition
without pedantry, in a tone marked by good sense without levity.--Victor
Davis Hanson, author of The Other Greeks and co-author of Who Killed
Homer?
Eva Brann is a member of the senior faculty at St. John's College in
Annapolis, Maryland, where she has taught for fifty years. She is a
recipient of the National Humanities Medal. Her other books include The
Logos of Heraclitus, Feeling Our Feelings, Homage to Americans,
Open Secrets / Inward Prospects, The Music of the Republic,
Un-Willing, and Then and Now (all published by Paul Dry Books).
