Verses from the Antique 4: Poems of Love and War from the Ancient World

In each session, a scholar will read out three or four ancient poems in translation and then discuss them informally. The session is open to all and assumes no prior knowledge of the poems. The theme for the term is ‘love and war’, which we have asked our colleagues to interpret as broadly and narrowly as they see fit: the poems they choose may be about love or war or both.

In this fourth session of the series, we will be joined by Alinda Damsma who will share her favourite poems from Hebrew. Damsma is a Lecturer in Biblical Hebrew in the UCL Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Her research interests are the Hebrew Bible, Bible translations, the ancient Near East and its languages, Jewish mysticism, and magic, divination, and witchcraft in biblical & post-biblical times. View her UCL profile here.

The event series includes readings of poems from the Sanskrit, Babylonian, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. 

Come and join us for what promises to be a lively and thought-provoking hour of verse and conversation. No registration required. Tea & biscuits will be served!

Image: Head of Krishna: cartoon for a mural of the Raslila.  Attributed to Sahib Ram (Rajasthan, India), ca. 1800.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1918. Accession Number: 18.85.2. www.metmuseum.org