Twenty Lines of Homer

I have read of the discipline of a nightly "twenty lines of Homer", which I suppose to include construing, perhaps after copying out, twenty (Greek) lines of The Iliad or The Odyssey every night. At the moment, the only citation I can give is to one of Flann O'Brien's Keats and Chapman stories. One could not in some ways ask for a finer source than O'Brien; one could certainly ask for a more reliable one. Still I doubt that he invented the practice.

The first book of The Odyssey runs to just over 440 lines, so just over three weeks at that rate. If the others run about the same, then it would take a year and a half to get through The Odyssey. Given the world's population, I expect that someone, somewhere is undertaking this.

Odysseys

 On Tuesday, I happened to look at the University of Toronto's Representative Poetry Online (RPO) site. I did not find what I was looking for (something short and pithy for ESL students to recite). I did see, though, that the Random Poem of the Day was "Hereux qui, comme Ulysse" by Joachim Du Bellay, Given that the new movie The Odyssey is just out, this struck me as a curious coincidence. A niece suggested that it might not be coincidental, though I find it hard to see how the selection could profit RPO. Searches for "Ulysses" give much more space to Joyce than to Homer, let alone Du Bellay.

 "Hereux" qui remains the Random Poem of the Day. Perhaps it is really the Random Poem of the Week, since RPO gives births and deaths for "On this Day: July 17".

Like a Romance

 The preface to Descartes's Principles of Philosophy includes

I would suggest reading it all the way through, like a romance, without greatly straining one's attention, or being held up by any difficulties one encounters, so as simply to get a general idea of the subjects discussed. Afterwards, if one decides that these are worthy of them, it can be read a second time, so as to follow the sequence of my arguments; but, again, one should not let oneself be put off, if one loses the thread now and again, or if one does not understand all the arguments; simply mark with a pen the places one has found difficult, and read on to the end without a break. Then if one goes back to the book a third time, I venture to say that one will find the solution to most of the difficulties one has noticed the previous time; and if any still remain, a final re-reading should put paid to them.

(This is the preface to the French translation, taken from Michael Moriarty's translation, in The Passions of the Soul and Other Late Philosophical Writings.)

When I arrived at college, somebody gave or sold me a how-to book of some sort, which included the advice to read any given text three times. The first was certainly for an overview, corresponding to Descartes's "like a romance". It seems to me that once was for the author's style; and that I can't remember the other one's purpose suggests where some of my academic difficulties came from.