Note: This story may not be current. It is part of the IT News Archive, and exists as a historical document.

The world of the poet Homer looms larger and moves closer to moderns at UH this month.

On September 24 the Research Computing Center (RCC) plans to sponsor a seminar that explores the topic "Digital Renaissance: Rediscovering Homer in the 21st Century". To be held at the Honors Commons in Room 212 at M.D. Anderson Library, the 4pm event features two speakers: Christopher Blackwell and Casey Due Hackney.

Blackwell, of the Classics Department at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, helped make three ancient manuscripts of Homer's Iliad available digitally. They date from 950 A.D. and were found in bound books with pages made of sheepskin. Fewer than 20 scholars were allowed to access them over the past 150 years. Blackwell adapted classics manuscripts to enable viewing via the World Wide Web. Viewers can pan around the display screen and zoom in or out on the images.

Hackney, an associate professor in UH's Department of Modern and Classical Languages, pursues interests in Homeric poetry, Greek oral traditions, and Greek tragedy.

Speakers plan to discuss The Iliad, an epic Greek poem that recounts important events during a portion of the final year of the Trojan War, as well as the technology used in imaging the Venentus A manuscript, written in 950 AD, upon which all modern editions of The Iliad are primarily based. The Trojan War involved a siege of the City of Ilion (Troy). A major Greek warrior, Achilles, angrily withdrew from the battle after being dishonored by King Agememnon.

The seminar is also presented by the UH Department of Modern and Classic Languages and the Center for Hellenic Studies in association with the Honors College. RCC staff refer to event as "The Wrath of Achilles Digitized."

A flyer for the event features an image of an ancient Greek mask and the first few lines of the epic poem--in Greek. RCC staff produced this unique flyer.

Photograph courtesy of Creative Commons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Corinthian_helmet_Denda_Staatliche_Antikensammlungen_4330.jpg.