Possible Next Steps

The two-week span of the NEH institute at which I developed these resources limited the scope of what I was reasonably and realistically able to achieve, but I plan to continue to augment them in several ways as I find time. The most obvious next step will be to make a proper novice tier more closely aligned with the intermediate and advanced ones–essentially, to fill in the gap between the very basic novella and those higher tiers. This should not require much time. I would also like to create different formats for all the non-novella tiers that include supplementary graphics, and perhaps even glosses and commentaries. StoryJumper seems very promising, but I may wish to branch out to experiment with other programs, depending on how my vision and goals may change as I develop these new resources.

Secondarily, and more in line with my original (albeit overly ambitious) conception of this project, I’d like to create equivalent Greek versions to match all my Latin ones. As someone at a smaller school that can’t justify an official Greek class that does not clear a certain enrollment threshold, I usually teach it pro bono as an independent study. I’d love to be able to contribute this resource to everyone out there in that same position. In the first place, this will involve composing and/or translating into advanced, colloquial Greek the narrative portions I wrote in Latin to stitch together the original primary source quotations. The next phase would obviously be to create an equivalent intermediate tier, and then also a novice one. The final step along this trajectory will be the creation of a Greek novella to match the Latin one. Despite the explosion of Latin novellas in the past decade, Greek ones remain rather elusive at this point. 

Finally, I can conceive of expanding this model into a whole series of tiered readings and/or novellas in both Greek and Latin revolving around the theme of the ancient Olympics and Olympians. Stories of incredible feats and characters abound in the sources, all of which can inform the development of future projects that employ the selfsame methodology as this one. I already know that my next topic will be a prequel focusing on Alcibiades and how he, even if unintentionally and indirectly, served as the impetus/prime mover in the development of the plot for the Cynisca story.