Weaving a New Version of the Odyssey

Have you seen Nolan's The Odyssey? I got to see it on opening night in lil ole Galesburg, Illinois, at the end of a two-week K-12 Summer Institute sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and co-directed by ME and my buddy Bob Holschuh-Simmons. We had a lovely group of educators all together at the quaint and beautiful Monmouth College to learn about The Ancient Olympics and Daily Life in Ancient Olympia: A Hands-On History. I taught archaeology, weaving, ancient writing, and other stuff. It was a TON of work but so rewarding and fun. We spent our last night together seeing the movie. Despite a VERY scary preview of The Other Mommy (watch if you dare, and trust me that you should not), the movie was exciting and satisfying. I was glad to see a nice warp-weighted loom in Penelope's use, cool effects like in the Circe scene, and jump scares like the Scylla and Charybdis. Although I found Odysseus' character to be written more like I would have imagined Aeneas, I still found value in the film. I liked it.

Scholars have all weighed in - some loved it, others hated it. Either way, classical organizations in the US are already anticipating more seats filled in classics courses across the land. The Society for Classical Studies has named October 15 "Odyssey Day," asking its members to sponsor classical outreach events at local libraries and community centers. It may come as no surprise to you, dearest gentle reader, that yours truly has offered to teach some teen weaving classes at the nearby library. In case you're interested in teaching your students to weave, I've got you covered with this SERIES OF WEAVING LESSONS - included, you'll find a presentation on how we know about weaving in the ancient world, two videos made by me that show how to make a cardboard loom and how to weave, reflection and review questions, and a list of resources and links. Please use it, and ask me ANYTHING. I love to share and help. 

At the end of June, my friend Molly Jones Lewis and I taught a spinning (her) and weaving (me) workshop at the annual summer institute of the American Classical League. You can see our resources here if you need more.

For those of you who may not know, I'm a weaving nerd. In the past couple of years, I've graduated from teaching simple frame loom weaving to getting a warp-weighted loom built and learning the ancient way to taking up an artistic practice myself. I've done a few circular weavings to beautify my home, but just recently, in celebration of the end of my own odyssey of travel in July, I bought myself a Schact inkle loom so that I can finally do the deep dive I've been dreaming of into card weaving. Card (or tablet) weaving is an ancient practice that created tight bands of threads that served as borders for larger pieces of cloth. I've been looking through hundreds of patterns trying to decide what I'll try to make. Then, I saw this one...waves. Ah, yes, inspired by the Odyssey!