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This project started with me assisting Prof. Lynn Kozak on her quest to memorize the Catalogue of Ships from book 2 of the Iliad. The opportunity for me to perform was presented and of course, I agreed. Over the course of four weeks in the summer I translated and memorized the Greek catalogue.

 

The translation process took up most of the time, considering that I accidentally translated all of book 2 instead of the last 400 lines, though the catalogue took only 3 or 4 days to translate in the end. In order to fully memorize the Greek list, some 270 lines of poetry, we experimented with several different practices. Ultimately the combination of three methods (repetition, visual "maps", and related imagery) and several weeks of continuously running the lines in my head led to me being comfortable enough for a sort of performance.

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For the duration of the semester, in addition to keeping the lines in my head, I put together my plans for performance. Initially I had wanted some sort of scene reminiscent of a child playing while creating a story background for the toys. I had imagined paper boats, with which I would play as I told the story of the catalogue, and thus gave background to the characters in the Iliad. Unfortunately, this was easier thought of than done. The final product was a performance art installation. 

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This website documents the processes by which I translated, memorized and performed the Greek catalogue of ships.