Unfortunately, I didn't read the article to which this letter refers. But the October 9th, 2006 issue of the New Yorker printed the following letter:
"Richard Brodhead, Duke's president, attempts an apologia for big-time college sports by invoking Odysseus as an 'image of excellence.' But another reading of Odysseus shows him to be a manipulative, self-aggrandizing liar, a deceitful opportunist, and a thief. He never stands up to the incompetent leadership of Agamemnon, he spends years in alcohol and dissipation, and what passes for his personal courage is, more often than not, just egotistical recklesslessness that leads to the death of his own men (which he is always quick to blame on someone else). Maybe Odysseus does have a lot in common with big-time college sports after all."
So, what do you think?
If nothing else, it reminded me that it's been too long since I've read The Iliad. Agamemnon's incompetent leadership? I remember Achilles being ticked at Aggy (sorry, but try typing that full name and see how much fun it is) for keeping a captured woman that Achilles wanted; is this what's being referred to? Maybe on our next cycle through the Greeks, we can read The Iliad. I'd thought that the next time we hit the antiquities, we could do a Roman or two, since I have pretty much none under my belt -- Ovid and Marcus Aurelius would be nice. Time enough for everything, in time...
