Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and Classical Uprising host a public lecture featuring Henry Winkley Professor of Latin and Greek at Bowdoin College, Barbara Weiden Boyd –The Voices of Women in Ancient Literature–providing historical and literary context for the upcoming Portland Bach Experience performance of Penelope, with a focus on women’s perspectives, agency, and storytelling in classical texts, including The Odyssey. Inspired by Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey, Penelope is a meditation on what it means to come home. A song cycle by Sarah Kirkland Snider, Penelope, sees a woman's husband appear at her door after an absence of twenty years, suffering from brain damage. A veteran of an unnamed war, he doesn't know who he is and she doesn't know who he's become. While they wait together for his return to himself, she reads to him from the Odyssey, and in the journey of that book, she finds a way into her former husband's memory and the terror and trauma of war.

Participation is free and includes a discount code for the Penelope concert. To register, call the OLLI office at 207-780-4406. Attendance is limited to 50 participants. Hosted in partnership with Classical Uprisingand The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. This series leads up to the Penelope concert on May 28 in Portland and May 30 in Yarmouth.