Courses
View course offerings below.
Upcoming Event:
Skywatching with Morehead Planetarium
Outside Event:
The Morehead Planetarium and Science, of UNC will bring their telescopes! We will view craters on the moon, the rings of Saturn and more !
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Format: informal, outside looking through telescopes. Will move inside if adverse weather.
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Presented by:
Amy Sayle, PhD
Science Education Specialist
Morehead Planetarium of UNC, Chapel Hill and associated staff.
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Date
September 27th,2025
Saturday
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Time
7:30 to 9:30 pm
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Location:
Chapel in the Pines,
314 Great Ridge Pkwy
Chapel Hill, NC
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Participants please kindly register
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Cost
No cost to attend.
Donations to The School of Athens are graciously accepted.
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Upcoming Lecture:
Friends? Romans? Countryman?
Event:
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
Political animus, identity and the classical legacy. We will analyze this short play including looking at Shakespeare's sources: the ancient Greeks Plutarch, Suetonius and Cicero
Format: Lecture and Discussion
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Presented by:
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Dates: TBA
Saturdays,
October 2025
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Time:
2 to 4 pm
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Location:
Chapel in the Pines,
314 Great Ridge Pkwy,
Chapel Hill, NC
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Participants please kindly register, especially if you wish to receive any pre-course materials:
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Cost:
Open to the public
Donations to The School of Athens are graciously accepted.
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​Ancient Wisdom, Modern Dilemmas
Event:
A lecture presentation
​about questions considered by ancient and modern-day moralists
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Presented by:
Michael Vazquez,Ph.D,
UNC Philosophy Dept & Dir. of Outreach, The Parr Center for Ethics
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Date:
Saturday, Nov 2, 2024
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Time:
2 to 4 pm
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Location:
Chapel in the Pines,
314 Great Ridge Pkwy
Chapel Hill, NC
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Cost:
No cost to attend.
Donations to The School of Athens are
graciously accepted
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Homer's The Odyssey
A foundation story attributed to the blind bard, Homer. We'll join the mythical hero Odysseus and his mariners, on their adventures, as they journey back home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.
Dates:
Wednesdays, May 17, 24 & 31, 2023
Time: 10:00 am to noon
Location:
Chapel in the Pines,
314 Great Ridge Pkwy, Chapel Hill
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Instructor:
Blaine Paxton Hall
Cost: $45..00
The Oresteia by Aeschylus
A cycle trilogy of Greek tragedy about Orestes and the curse on the House of Atreus, written by the playwright Aeschylus. The Oresteia is the only extant, complete Ancient Greek dramatic trilogy. It was performed at the Greater Dionysia Festival in 458 BC, where it won First Prize. Its themes are still relevant today.
Dates:
Wednesdays, September 13 & 20, 2023
Time: 8:30 am to 10:30
Location:
Chapel in the PInes, 314 Great Ridge Pkwy, Chapel Hill
Instructor: Professor Al Duncan, UNC Dept of Classics. Bio & CV: https://classics.unc.edu/people-3/faculty-2-2/al-duncan/
Cost: $45.00
Literary Memoir
We will look at examples of contemporary and historical literary memoir. We will learn techniques for writing literary memoir. Participants will receive a free, new copy of Hestia's House, a literary memoir.
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Dates: TBD
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Location:
Chapel in the Pines
314 Great Ridge Pkwy., Chapel Hill
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Instructor:
Blaine Paxton Hall
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Cost:
TBD
Gender Variance
An historical overview of gender variant persons in art, ancient and modern history, mythology and cross-culturally. Presentation will Include many slides and photo examples. Mr. Hall recently presented this at Duke OLLI Symposia on Feb 14.
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Date:
Saturday, May 13th, 2023
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Time:
10 am to noon
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Location:
Chapel in the Pines
314 Great Ridge Pkwy, Chapel Hill
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Speaker:
Blaine Paxton Hall
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Cost:
Donations to The School of Athens are graciously accepted
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Upcoming Event:
Poetry Forum
Event:
A recurring, informal group to read and discuss original poetry or favorites by other authors. Occasional didactic presentations.
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Format:
Group participants presenting poetry and related discussion
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Presented by:
Blaine Paxton Hall; Bio: https://www.theschoolofathens.net/founder
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Date
Saturday, May 17, 2025
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Time
2 to 4 pm
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Location:
Chapel in the Pines,
314 Great Ridge Pkwy
Chapel Hill, NC
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Participants please kindly register, especially if you wish to receive any pre-course materials:
​​​​
Cost
No cost to attend.
Donations to The School of Athens are graciously accepted.
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Past Event
Plato's Republic
Event:
Tagging onto the recent lecture: "Ancient Wisdom, Modern Dilemmas, " and reading Plato's Republic together, we'll inquire more deeply into the text, including the cave allegory and the story of Gyges magic ring .
Recommended text translation:
G.M.A. Grube
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Format: group book read. and discussion
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Presented by:
Blaine Paxton Hall; Bio: https://www.theschoolofathens.net/founder
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Date
Saturdays, March 15 and continuing on March 22, 2025
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Time
2 to 4 pm
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Location:
Chapel in the Pines,
314 Great Ridge Pkwy
Chapel Hill, NC
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Participants please kindly register, especially if you wish to receive any pre-course materials:
​​​​
Cost
No cost to attend.
Donations to The School of Athens are graciously accepted.
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Aha Mathematics; with Intro to Greek Mathematics
A course to inspire awe for the beauty of math, its ubiquity and symmetry in nature, the power of math, and examples of the many applications of math. We'll introduce Euclid's Elements; look at a visual proof of the Pythagorean Theorem, Platonic solids-- and examples of fascinating numbers such as prime and transcendental numbers.
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Dates:
Saturdays, June 22 and 29, 2024
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Time: 2 to 4 pm
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Location: Chapel in the Pines, 314 Great Ridge Pkwy, Chapel Hill, NC
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Instructor:
Blaine Paxton Hall;
Bio on website:
https://www.theschoolofathens.net/founder)
Cost: Free and open to the Public
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The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest, extant literary work. It was written before any/all of the books of the Bible and predates Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey by some 1500 years.
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Dates:
Wednesdays, February 14, 21, 28, 2024
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Time: 10 to noon
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Location:
Chapel in the Pines
314 Great Ridge Pkwy
Chapel Hill, NC
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Cost: $30.00
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Instructor:
Blaine Paxton Hall
(Bio & CV on website)
Ekphrastic Poetry
The Inaugural Event of The School of Athens
Ekphrastic poetry is written upon an inspirational encounter with a work of visual art--such as a painting, a sculpture or a photograph.
Dates:
Thursdays, March 2, through March 23, 2023 (4 classes)
Time: 10:00 am to noon
Location:
Old Lystra Inn
1164 Old Lystra Road,
Chapel Hill, NC
Limited to 10 participants
Instructor:
Blaine Paxton Hall
(Bio & CV on website)
Cost: $75.00
Virgil's The Aeneid
A foundation myth about the founding of Rome--the travels and adventures of Aeneas, a survivor of the Trojan War--he and his ancestors are said to have founded Rome.
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Dates:
Saturdays:
April 6, 13, 20, 27, 2023
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Time: 2 to 4 pm
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Location:
Chapel in the Pines, 314 Great Ridge Pkwy,
Chapel Hill, NC
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Cost:
$40.00
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Instructor:
Blaine Paxton Hall (Bio and CV on website)
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Finding Home:
A Quaker Family in VA, NC & Ohio
We will trace the direct paternal line of Moses Hall--born 1685 in England--initially settling in VA, then to NC-- from which they emigrated to Ohio, to escape "that peculiar institution."
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Presented by:
Blaine Paxton Hall​
Date: TBD
Time: TBD
Location: CitP
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Upcoming Event:
Greek & Roman Mythology
Event:
We'll learn about the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, and analyze several myths from a literary critical perspective.
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Recommended texts:
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Format:
Lecture & Discussion
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Presented by:
Blaine Paxton Hall; Bio: https://www.theschoolofathens.net/founder
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Dates: Saturdays
May 24 and continuing on May 31, 2025
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​Time:
2 to 4 pm
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Location:
Chapel in the Pines,
314 Great Ridge Pkwy
Chapel Hill, NC
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Participants please kindly register, especially to receive any pre-course materials:
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Cost:
No cost to attend.
Donations to The School of Athens are graciously accepted
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How Often Do You Think About the Roman Empire ?
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Roman Britain: What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Event
A historical and archeological presentation about the time that Britain was part of the Roman Empire. What did the ancient Romans bring to the Celtic Britons--and therefore to us?
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Presented by:
Blaine Paxton Hall,
who recently studied at Oxford University, England, under tutor Steve Kershaw, Ph.D--his course of study: "Roman Britain: History and Archeology."
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Date
Saturdays, January 11 , and continuing on January 18th, 2025
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Time
2 to 4 pm
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Location:
Chapel in the Pines,
314 Great Ridge Pkwy
Chapel Hill, NC
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Cost
No cost to attend.
Donations to The School of Athens are graciously accepted.
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Debate: A Primer
Formal debate can be traced to the philosophers and scholars of ancient Greek as a means of critical inquiry.
We will look at various formats of formal debate, skills of effective debate, and examples of great historical debates, such as the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 and the Wm. F. Buckley v. James Baldwin 1962
Dates:
2 December 2023
13 January 2024
Time: 2 to 3:30 pm
Location:
Chapel in the Pines
314 Great Ridge Pkwy, Chapel Hill
Instructor:
Blaine Paxton Hall
(Bio & CV on website)
Cost: Free & open to the public
The Iliad by Homer
The Iliad about the "wrath of Achilles," and is set during the last year of the Trojan War. Achilles is the protagonist among many characters, male, female, gods and goddesses. Themes include revenge, war, mortality, love, friendship, honor, pride and fate vs.
free will
Dates:
Wednesdays, Sept 27, Oct 4, 11, 18; Nov 8th, 2023.
Time: 10:00 am to noon
Location:
Chapel in the Pines
314 Great Ridge Pkwy, Chapel Hill
Limited to 10 participants
Instructor:
Blaine Paxton Hall
(Bio & CV on website)
Cost: $45.00
Courses about the following topics under consideration or development:
Sacred / Classical Music/Opera
Topics in Literature: Ovid's Metamorphoses
Histories / Western Civilization
History of US Government / The Federalist Papers
Philosophy Topics
History of Christianity
Book Club / Film Club
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