Brush up your Homer… Lewes students set out on an Odyssey (without the doughnuts)

Teachers and students from Lewes Old Grammar School will be brushing up their Homer this month for a synchronised global reading of The Odyssey.

Organised by the International Festival of Latin and Greek, the almost 3000-year old poem will be read in 20 countries and 42 languages – including Ancient Greek, English, French and Spanish at Lewes Library.

Keith Rogers, a computer science and Classics teacher, who will be helping reintroduce Latin to the LOGS curriculum in September, is co-ordinating the local event. He’s keen for other schools and members of the public to take part.

“We’ve chosen Book 9 of The Odyssey, which includes the lotus-eaters, the battle with the Cicones and the Cyclops scene, which is probably the most exciting part. It’s the classic tale of brains winning over brawn,” he said.

The poems, which have inspired countless retellings in print and on film, including the O Brother, Where Art Thou? starring George Clooney, might be ancient, but Keith believes they’re far from being irrelevant.

“The rights and values that we prize, like democracy, have typically come from the Classical world. And the literature that the Greeks and Romans have passed down gives us a chance to reflect on those values that we are trying to protect today. In an era when so many people are being made migrants The Odyssey also reminds us of the importance of home.”

But as for Odysseus, Keith doesn’t think he measures up to modern superheroes.

“You come to realise after a while that he is really after renown. He’s not a social hero; he’s more of a Clint Eastwood character, all of whose men wind up dead around him.”

The reading, which will take around 50 minutes, opens in Ancient Greek – the language in which it was originally told – at Lewes Library at 10am on March 24.

Additional copies of The Odyssey have been ordered in for the occasion.

The library runs a regular ‘Get Into Reading’ Club and other community events, but has never hosted anything quite like ‘The Odyssey’ marathon before.

…End…                                                                                              14 March 2017