Bard Reading comes to 'Sco

Marathon reading takes all-nighters to a new level

The 'Sco was the setting for an out-of-the-ordinary evening Sunday night as the regular dancing superstars made room for the Classics Department. Beginning at 2 p.m. and ending 4 a.m. on Monday was the 6th Annual Bardic Reading. This year featured the Odyssey, the 24 book story of Odysseus' long awaited return to Ithaca where he returns only to find that he and his son Telemachus have some house cleaning to do. The reading usually takes place during Winter Term, but due to scheduling conflicts it was held during February for the first time.

Dozens of speakers read, and students lucky enough to see Thomas Van Nortwick, who is always a crowd pleaser, and the incredibly articulate senior Todd Bailey were not disappointed. But probably most interesting of all was James Helm, who read a section of the text in its original Greek, not something you get to hear every day. It also helped add to the feeling that this was kind of what it was like when these texts were originally performed.

The Bardic Reading started in 1993 when a couple of students in Helm's introductory Classics class suggested that they could probably read the Iliad in 24 hours. And in James Helm's own modest words, "It turned out to be a success." Ever since then Helm, along with the Classics Department faculty and students as well as other students and community members, read the Iliad, the Odyssey or the Aeneid. "The first year we did it, a number of reporters from the local press came, then AP picked it up," Helm said, "then there were copycat performances around campus."

In fact, it was surprising to see how many people were in attendance considering that we attend a school where English majors aren't even required to take a single Classics class. To this Helm said, "Last year around 55 people took part, and six people stayed the whole time, myself included. But it's bigger this year than ever, there are a lot of people I've never seen before." In fact, this year about 60 people attended, of whom 22 students and five faculty read. Todd Bailey summed it up when he said "It's nice to see Classics associated with a dance club and staying up all night, it's very rock and roll."