The Iliad at The Hellenic Centre
London, England, July 21, 2012
This experience was beyond magical.....it was sacred...
- Attila P., Lithuania
At the invitation of the Hellenic Centre, The Readers mounted a reading of the Iliad in honor of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The event accompanied The First Modern Olympics, Athens 1896, an exhibition of historical photographs at The Centre. The text celebrated the unique British contribution to Homer translation, drawing on the work of Alexander Pope, Robert Fitzgerald and Christopher Logue. The esoteric ensemble Daemonia Nymphe provided music, playing reconstructed ancient Greek instruments by Nikos Brass. Over 200 participants read in languages ranging from English and Greek to Finnish, Danish, German, Arabic, Senegalese, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Japanese.
This is the kind of message that should be heard at the time of the Olympic Games, rather than the run-of-the-mill comments one hears in London these days: collective messages about universal values, with active citizens' engagement. Congratulations to the organizers! We stand here impressed and moved.
- Lord Mayor of Westminster
We brought our 10 year old son to listen to Homer for half an hour and he stayed put for 10 full hours!! He insisted on getting on stage to read and he was so excited by the experience he can't wait for you to come back with the Odyssey.
- Panagiotis Ν., Cyprus
Looking for the Korean translation of my passage I discovered several translations and analysis of Homer in my mother tongue and ended up reading for about it for two days!
- Hyung Sok K., Korea