Glaukôpidos: An Anachronism in Modernity

Glaukopis' 32452346th return, the Lupercale, and Alcestis & Medea

2007-11-21T01:50:00.002-05:00

I would apologize again for my extended absence, but I'm sure anyone still reading this is sick of hearing the excuses! However, I was very excited to read about the discovery of the Lupercale. How cool is that??

In other news, although I am no longer officially a grad student anywhere--alas!--I've been keeping up with a Greek class this semester. It keeps me sane and drives me insane at the same time, but then I guess that's what Greek is all about.

I've also been thinking a lot about the similarities between Alcestis and Medea lately. I know this seems strange at first glance, but they do both subvert male power by outshining their respective husbands. And Alcestis does ask Admetus not to remarry--which is, of course, a far cry from offing the new wife, but it's still limiting Admetus' future chances at procreation.

I have to think more about this and go back over the Medea with the Alcestis at hand too. I sort of feel like the Alcestis is Euripides being subtle, and the Medea is him saying, ok, subtle didn't work? I'll hit you on the head with a 1000 ton hammer.

I don't know. Maybe I'm reading too much Medea into everything else.

Terra marique potens

2007-09-20T02:04:00.000-04:00

Arr, I be late fer Talk Like a Pirate Day! Apologies, maties, but me internet's been actin' up! But in honour of Talk Like a Pirate Day, I be readin' (well, skimmin') Map of the Ancient Sea Kings. It be an interestin' read and something fer all good pirates! Landlubbers need be botherin'. arr.

I also be listenin' to The Pirate Queen, which though it not be Classics related, did feature (on stage) the line o' Queen Elizabeth's: "I know when I am being insulted in Latin!"

Well, that an' there be a scene where Grace O'Malley goes off swashbucklin' directly after givin' birth, which reminded me o' Medea ("I'd prefer to stand in battle thrice with a shield than to give birth once."), but that be neither here nor there. Everythin' be remindin' me o' Medea!

Anyway, hope all o' ye talked good an' proper like a pirate today!

What dreams may come . . .

2007-09-01T13:49:00.000-04:00

I wish I could say more was going on here, but it's not. I've been reading some Latin, and I'm going to be taking a Greek course this fall just to keep up during my year off. But right now, there's really very little to report. I'm hesitant to throw up articles everyone else is already posting about anyway.

Oh, and I'm looking for a job. If anyone wants to offer me one, great. ;-)

But I do have a question for all of you lovely Classicists, specifically, a question about dreams!

You see, last night, I was in the unfortunate position of having a dream (nightmare?) about Greek--Greek accents. In this dream, I was trying to type a sigma, and for the life of me, none of my keys would type a regular sigma! I only got a sigma with an accent! I don't remember what kind of accent now, but it horrified me, obviously. Finally, with the advice of someone I know, I marked it in the paper (it was a draft) and planned to cross it out manually.

And this is obviously a really lame dream. I've had better ones. Once I dreamt about finding Latin inscriptions and then finding out that they were left by aliens or somesuch . . .

But, my question--does anyone else dream about these things? I can't be the only one who has ridiculously pedantic dreams about Greek accents, can I??

Random, Random, Random (well, Jeopardy)

2007-08-09T15:55:00.001-04:00

Ok, so I'm back across the pond now, and hopefully we'll see more regular updates.

But firstly, has anyone else been watching celebrity Jeopardy this past week? They've had quite a number of Classics related questions, some of which were imposisbly easy. There was one that was something like "He made Socrates his spokesperson" or whatnot, and I was rather horrified that nobody got it. There was one on Venus, and the last one I saw was a category called "The Iliad, Macbeth, and The Hobbit." It was impossibly easy with answers like "This one was written first." Um, yeah.

Actually, that was a rather ridiculous category, considering all three of the celebs on the show had done theatre before and should thus know something about The Scottish Play, at the very least. And making actors say "Macbeth" is just rather cruel. And completely randomly, Brian Stokes Mitchell was on the show, and he was in Ragtime with Audra McDonald who was the lead in Marie Christine based on Medea--whew!

And actually, Audra McDonald's character in Ragtime nearly killed her child as well because of its father's philandering ways.

Next time, I'll try to be less rambling in my post . . .

Apologies for the super-extended hiatus!

2007-07-09T11:03:00.000-04:00

I got caught up in the final paper and the thesis (which is done, whew!) and decided I better cut myself off from the blogging world. Every time I thought I had a moment to notify people of this, I realized I'd get sucked back in (it didn't help that I'd feel obligated to wade through the hundreds of e-mails sitting in my inbox now from the various Classics related lists I'm on :-P). And when that was done, I was faced with a spotty internet connection. Eheu.

So anyway, apologies. I shall attempt to update more regularly again!

Two things I definitely wanted to post about, though:

-Rome Reborn, which you really just have to click on and see for yourself. But it's 3D Rome and amazingly well done.

-Harvard's Latin Salutatory Address--for the Star Wars fan, super amusing. Because Latin and Star Wars seem naturally to go together in my head anyway (don't ask).

I hope these humble gifts are enough to excuse my extended absence.

Internet situation is still a bit spotty, but I shall try my best to catch up and keep up!

Brush Up Your Shakespeare!

2007-04-19T12:04:00.000-04:00

Yes, I know, this is a Classics blog, and how many of us are sick of people asking, "Oh, so you study Shakespeare?" But fear not, I shall related this back to our world of Classics.

I actually did attend phenomenal performances of both Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night last weekend, so it saddens me to read that Shakespeare, like our Classical studies, is on a decline. It does not, however, surprise me. I started as an English major, and I too was vexed that my school did not make Shakespeare a requirement for the major. And I have to agree that "earning a bachelor's degree in English without the study of Shakespeare 'is tantamount to fraud.'" (And speaking of which, I think reading these books would also be "tantamount to fraud!)

At this point in college, we cannot assume that every student has read Shakespeare in high school before--because they haven't. Moreover, even if they did, they weren't analyzing his work at the level you do in college. How can you possibly be an English major--no matter what your field--without some Shakespeare?

Back in my earlier undergraduate days, when I was still naive and filled with grand illusions about, well, many things, I took a class called Shakespeare & His Contemporaries. One of the works we were reading was Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. There were English majors in that class who hadn't read Shakespeare before (an upper-level English class, and thank goodness these were the ones honest enough to rectify that situation), and moreover, when the prof asked if there was anyone who didn't know the basic story of Troy (this was before the bad movie), sure enough there was at least one person willing to admit that she didn't. She, at least, was willing to learn, but I wonder about a system that allows us to get by without Shakespeare and without Homer. How many English majors are walking away without Shakespeare and thinking that the wretched movie Troy IS actually Homer? There was a time when studying English literature meant you knew something about the Greek & Latin Classics also. Now, some English departments still teach it, but I had a Classics major friend who was seriously told by his English grad student TA that the Iliad and Odyssey were written around 2700 BC (yes, you read that right). My friend told the TA that he was wrong. The TA would not back down. My friend pulled out a reference. The TA said, "Well, there's some debate."

I could tell other horror stories about the Classics (or lack thereof) in English classes, and it's bad enough that Homer's going, but Shakespeare? What kind of English majors are they producing??

It's springtime for Glaukopis!

2007-04-18T09:54:00.000-04:00

Firstly, Glaukopis does not like blogger's change that forces her to associate this account with a gmail account. Glaukopis is sorely displeased.

Glaukopis also offers apologies for not updating much lately, but Glaukopis has been busy (and jetlagged last week) since her return to the UK.

Also, it's springtime, and you know what that means? It means Glaukopis' allergies are acting up. Fortunately, they are not generally as bad in this country, because it's not riddled with cherry blossoms the way the D.C. area is. You laugh, but Glaukopis has a cherry blossom tree outside her bedroom window at home. You do the math.

However, despite the fact that Glaukopis is using some Claritin equivalent (so says the pharmacist) here, the pollen allergies are now making her sensitive to books. Usually, her book allergies are only set off by ~200 year old books (as she learned when she wrote a paper on John Quincy Adams), but in SPRINGTIME, Glaukopis is apparently sensitive to books printed with bad quality paper. This means Glaukopis is sniffling in the library and bothering both herself and everyone else. Glaukopis would, of course, be indebted to anyone who could offer a medicine that might work against these accursed allergies. Benadryl is not an option, as it puts Glaukopis to sleep!

Anyway, as a reward for reading through all that whining, Glaukopis presents you with a clip found by a friend of hers--an animated version of the Bayeux Tapestry! Glaukopis bets y'all are jealous you didn't think of this first. Glaukopis sure is.

Then unite heart in hand like Leonidas' band . . .

2007-04-04T16:01:00.000-04:00

So finally 300 has been seen by me! I must say first that I'm with those who love it. It's not meant to be a "real history" like the abominations that were Troy and King Arthur. It's meant to be based on a graphic novel. For something based on a graphic novel loosely based on history, I think they did a fair amount of research but also took artistic liberties. And for how little clothing the women were wearing, it's pretty amazing I can say the men were wearing even less . . .

I have to confess also that the movie reminded me weirdly of The Lord of the Rings and Braveheart with some Hunchback of Notre Dame (well, Hunchback fo Thermopylae) thrown in.

I personally could have done with less blood, but I did like how they showed some of the fighting. A lot of it was obviously fictionalized, but it wasn't completely ignorant.

Also, though the story does seem exaggerated and at times hypocritical (in that they're talking about freedom but secretly they have helots), it makes sense because a Spartan is telling the story. It seems, to me, like the beginning of a mythology, and I like that.

Anyway, many people have been comparing this movie with America (which I won't really comment on in terms of current politics, except to remind people that the graphic novel was done before the currenet political situation), but this story has been associated with America since the nation's inception. A song written by Thomas Treat Paine (not the famous Thomas Paine of "Common Sense"--he would never have written something with this title!) in 1798 called "Adams and Liberty" ends such (to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner):

Let Fame to the world sound America's voice;
No intrigues can her sons from their government sever;
Her pride is her Adams; Her laws are his choice,
And shall flourish, till Liberty slumbers for ever.
Then unite heart and hand,
Like Leonidas' band,
And swear to the God of the ocean and land;
That ne'er shall the sons of Columbia* be slaves,
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves.

It's worth clicking the link to the entire song to see how mythology and the ancient world were wrapped into America's notions of freedom at the time. It's also just an amusing song--especially with the image given of George Washington!

*"Columbia" being America, as I guess they were still deciding whether Christopher Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci deserved more credit.

HBO's Rome S2 Ep 10

2007-03-30T18:58:00.000-04:00

Firstly, though, DRAKOS has a few words about Classics-related video games.

As for Rome, I am once again stunned by their brilliance. And I can say that I am truly satisfied with the series ending here. There is more they could do, but a lot of it would be rehashing old themes, and I don't think they could possibly end this so well at any other event.

Now on to the SPOILERS.

-I was particularly impressed by Antony's death and how pained he looked when he was told that Cleopatra had killed herself. He had his moments with Atia, but it's clear he never loved her so well as he loved Cleopatra. And well, love for Vorenus too. ;-)
-I was a bit suspicious that we weren't shown Cleo's death, but they still made her reappearance something of a double-take moment for me anyway. Vorenus looked suitably pissed. Her real death scene was quite beautifully done.
-Octavian really sucks at pretending to be "all charm" and niceness. I like that he was there when Cleo died so she could tell him about his soul.
-I'm GLAD for another good moment between Vorenus and Pullo (well, several of them!). Reuniting with their children was done really well also. In particular, I liked the last scene with Pullo and Caesarion. And I love that it did come back to Vorenus & Pullo, even though this was the big Antony/Cleopatra death scene and Octavian's triumph.
-And I need to make this quick, so my last comment is about Atia. I've been on Team Servilia the entire way (even wore my Team Servilia shirt yesterday), but I'm proud of Atia. She told Livia, "I know who you are. I can see. You're swearing now someday you'll destroy me. Remember, far better women than you have sworn to do the same. Go look at them now." Personally, I take this as tribute to Servilia, but maybe that's my bias! And I suppose if they continued the series, they could have Atia vs Livia, but 1) Atia's supposed to be dead a long time coming now, and 2) it just wouldn't be as good as Atia vs Servilia, and it would rehash too much of the same stuff.

Possible further thoughts later, but I'm off to NYC for research (of a sort) tomorrow!

Life of an Alumna

2007-03-28T21:21:00.000-04:00

So, dear readers, I am still working on acquiring the season finale of Rome. Probably tomorrow, and you may even get a double feature with 300 as well. We shall see.

In the meantime, I'd like to discuss Alumni Associations. I haven't even been out (of undergrad) for a full year. They call and ask me to update my info. Do I have a job? No, I'm a grad student. Ten minutes later in the conversation, she drops the bomb--well, how would you like to help out our university by a small donation of just, well, only, the small, tiny amount of . . . $300.

If I could have glared over the phone, I would have. Instead, I said very politely, "Well, as I just pointed out, I'm a grad student and have no job." "Well, if you can't afford that, perhaps a smaller donation of only just . . . $100." "Again, grad student, deep in debt." I had to tell her about my expensive grad school fees before I could beg out of the conversation.

There was also the amusing part where she was telling me about how the university would like their ranking to be higher on the academic level, like their athletic rankings are. I'm afraid I couldn't hold back a biting comment about the way they shuffled out students when it came to game days on campus. I can't tell you how many Greek classes were interrupted or cut short for parking issues on game days. My wrath is deep and bitter and pure. I am, dear readers, wonderly wroth.

But she was a poor, naive freshman who didn't yet know the evil ways of the university. And at the very least, I did get to educate one more person about what a "Classics major" means. Any conversation where that lesson is learned is a good one.

Samos Kouros cast

2007-03-25T15:34:00.000-04:00

I saw this on the Samos Kouros cast on rogueclassicism the other day. Firstly, the picture does not do the cast justice. The thing is huge. A person standing directly in front of it and looking straight at it might encounter its fist. I can't get the video to play on my computer, but I hope it's the one they showed at the lecture. That was fun and gives a better idea of how huge this thing is.

Also, it's actually been on display in the museum for about a month before the lecture. I would have gone to watch them bring it in, but--as I recall--I was busy with a paper.

And if you're in the area but haven't been to the cast gallery in the Classics Faculty at Cambridge, it's definitely worth visiting. You don't usually get to see all these statues together in one place.

Anyway, my Rome review will probably be a bit later than it usually is, as I shall be on a plane homeward most of Monday. And lest you, dear readers, think I shall have gobs of free time, my vacation will be short and work-filled, alas.

NYT TimesSelect

2007-03-22T12:47:00.000-04:00

If you're affiliated with a University (and have a University e-mail), you can get NYT's TimesSelect for free here.

I wish I'd known about that earlier!

Anyway, I thought it would be useful to some of you. I was told .edu addresses, but my .ac.uk worked just fine too. I don't know about any other countries.

HBO's Rome S2 Ep 9 (and a link to Prof. Socrates)

2007-03-19T20:28:00.000-04:00

Before we get to Rome, you should all read this on Prof. Socrates. It's hilarious.

I must say, this was one AMAZING penultimate episode. SPOILERS as usual.

I think this episode was very much about coming full circle, reunions and alliance shifting. A few years have apparently passed, and Antony is living it up with Cleopatra. They are keeping the grain shipments from Rome. Antony seems to be high, um, all the time. He's also gone Egyptian. I think I'm going to have to talk about this by character, rather than by events (a chronological summary is available on the offical site anyway).

Octavian is an amazingly asshole-ish and cunning character. His speech when he out-maneuvers Antony was very well done. While I can't like him as a person, Simon Woods does an amazing job with him. And Livia? I really didn't want to watch them have sex, because she looks 12. I really hope she's older than she looks.

Atia being sent to Egypt and then turned away by Antony! Poor girl, she really does love Antony. But the best part is that we're back to Servilia & Caesar when Atia tells her beloved son to get Antony. I think I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that. Brilliantly done.

Atia and Octavia had a bit of a cute role-reversal too, what with Octavia becoming bitter and Atia acting all girlish on her way to see Antony. Octavia also has a daughter, Antonia, with golden curls who looks more like Agrippa than Antony . . .

Vorenus!! This episode redeemed him in my eyes. Being away from his troubles in Rome, he seems to have found some semblance of honour again. When keeping Atia away, you could tell he felt for her and thought Antony had done wrong. He also told Antonty (at Antony's bidding) exactly what he thought of him--that Antony has a disease in his soul, and that he recognized the symptoms as his own. When he had the chance to go home, you could tell he couldn't both because he couldn't break his pledge to Antony and, I think, because he knew his presence would hurt his children.

Pullo is also now with Gaia, and while I'm unsatisfied with Gaia pretty much getting away with it, she did partially redeem herself. She saved Pullo's life from Memmio (who was locked up in a cage and half-starved, but he escaped), but she in turn was stabbed. On what looked to be her deathbed, she confessed to Pullo that she had killed Eirene out of love for him. Pullo, in his usual fashion, strangles her. While I really can't stand Gaia, this was probably the *only* way they could have made her seem just a little less vile. But it also keeps us from getting a fully satisfactory murder-by-Pullo. I mean, she's already dying anyway. But he does dump her in the water, rather than giving her a proper burial. And, to be fair, she does recognize that Eirene was the good woman, and she tells Pullo that when he tries to tell her (before she confesses) that she's a good woman. Also, I really hate to say this, but Pullo did kill Eirene's first love, so it was appropriately cold justice, even if I don't think he deserved it.

Also, when Pullo hears about Caesarion, you can tell he's thinking of him as his own son. Vorenus, in a nice turn of events, is actually the one who seems to look after Caesarion--playing ball with him and telling him (by C's demand) about "his father." You can tell from what he says that Vorenus has interpreted "his father" as being Pullo, not Caesar, which was a *really* cute touch. And, of course, meanwhile, Pullo is back in Rome taking care of Vorenus' children.

Posca and Jocasta are also in Egypt, and when they realize there's a ship heading back to Rome (when Antony sends Atia and Octavia away), they immediately scurry to pack their things and leave. Vorenus catches them but lets them go. Posca tells him he should leave to Rome also, but Vorenus is unable to break his vow to Antony. He looks very tortured. Posca, upon his arrival in Rome, seems also to have brought the last will and testament of Antony and Cleopatra with him, in which they declare themselves gods and give Rome to Caesarion--basically, exactly what Octavian needs to declare war on Antony.

In short, I find this episode amazingly brilliant, filled with delicious role-reversals and such. I'm eagerly anticipating the last episode, but I'm so sad it's all about to end! In all fairness, though, I do think this will make a brilliant ending. I'm not sure if they could accomplish another season so brilliantly. Although, knowing these writers, I'm sure they'd find a way.

CAVE IDVS MARTIAS

2007-03-15T21:29:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately, I must admit that I woke up today and thought to myself, "Hmmm, Ides of March. I must wear an appropriate shirt." Not that I have a truly appropriate shirt, but I figured something with Latin would do. Thus, I am wearing my Latin Day 2004 t-shirt. Later, I discussed this with my friend (who deemed me a dork, or somesuch), and we agreed that IF ONLY my Team Servilia shirt (oh, by the way, I did win a Team Servilia shirt from Atia vs. Servilia) were here and not, say, back in the U.S., that would have been THE perfect shirt for today.

That aside, even that subjunctive choice was beat by far by a "kai su, teknon" (imagine that in Greek letters) shirt worn by someone who shall remain nameless unless he feels like naming himself (talk about being mentioned in blogs!).

Moving on to a few days ago when I told my friend, "This is ridiculous, but I just had a thought--Athenaze the Musical." Well, I got home tonight, and another friend mentioned ECCE! THE MUSICAL!.

I suddenly feel less ridiculous both for that thought and for my Ecce Romani fanfiction (which, as I've mentioned before, will never see the light of day). And see? Now all of those people who find my blog by googling "ecce romani fanfiction" will actually have a link to something!

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Marie Christine

2007-03-13T20:14:00.000-04:00

As some of you know, theatre has long been a passion of mine. However, since I've started to work on the 1999 Broadway musical, Marie Christine by Michael John LaChiusa and directed by Graciela Daniele (it's an adaptation of Medea), I'm starting to realize why I chose the plays of dead people rather than the modern musical (which is a particular favourite of mine) to study as my life-long academic interest.

You see, when I study the plays of dead people, although parts of their manuscripts may be missing or corrupt, I know for a fact that everyone else has the same amount of information on the text as I do. Thus, I can interpret within reason, and Euripides is not going to do an interview later that tells me how Wrong Wrong Wrong I am. Now, perhaps, we may dig up something else later, but nobody can expect me to know that.

When I work on modern musicals by living composers, I know that although only the CD and music book have officially been released, millions of people have seen this show when it was running. I also know that LaChiusa or other production people or cast members can tell me that I'm Wrong Wrong Wrong if I make an assumption about text or visual aspects I don't have. I also know that there's a nice little video in a super secret room in New York that can contradict anything I might guess about those bits I do not have!

So naturally, I requested permission from the proper theatre company for a copy of the script (and naturally, that company is in the U.S. and wanted a check for $16--did I think to bring my American checkbook here? No. Of course not.) and am now begging for permission to get to see that super secret little video in New York (if I can schedule it in time!). That seems so innocently simple, but I cannot even begin to explain the circles I've been running trying to get the proper information and contacts. Because, you know, the one thing the libraries here don't have is access to super secret information about American musicals. I know, I know--what was I thinking writing about an American musical when I'm in England? I don't know. But I do know this is one of the most brilliant modern adaptations of Medea. There are so many delicious nods to the Greek mythology--it is not just a story about a mother killing her children because their father is a bastard. There are so many other parallels! This work is rich with Medea, and it has not been written about enough.

Anyway, yes, copyright--that is why studying dead people is so much easier. When we don't know something an educated guess/interpretation is sufficient. Nobody can expect any more from you! And these dead people don't have copyright!

Also, I can't recommend this musical enough. LaChiusa gets compared to Sondheim often and accused of "having no melody"--but it's just because his melodies are more complex than the average Andrew Lloyd Webber show, for instance. I have been listening to this CD every single day for two weeks, and I still find new and wonderful things in it (not all of which are useful to my paper, but that is ok). There is also quibbling about whether this is a "musical" or an "operetta," but let's be honest--can anyone actually define the difference? And since La Boheme was on Broadway, I think people are starting to realize the difference between the musical and the opera is fairly superficial. This is a great piece of theatre, and I only wish it could have stayed on Broadway longer.

HBO's Rome S2 Ep 8

2007-03-12T20:36:00.000-04:00

I forgot to mention last week that I finally saw Pan's Labyrinth, and while there is no good reason why it should be called such (the original title makes a little more sense, in my opinion), it is quite a good--if extremely dark--movie.

This week, I saw the new Bond movie, Casino Royale, and I only mention it because Tobias Menzies (Brutus in HBO's Rome) is in it.

I am rather tired tonight, so methinks I'll make this review short. It will also be from the POV of a "fangirl" rather than a "Classicist"--but let's be honest, my reviews have been leaning that way anyway. SPOILERS, as usual.

-Antony and Atia--their love is twue--or is it? But, to be honest, it was a very "cool" way of getting Antony off to Egypt.
-Agrippa was quite adorable in this episode! So honorable and torn!
-Speaking of which, it was a nice touch to see Atia so concerned about her daughter in a non-destructive way. I really think that was the first time I've seen the woman act for something that wasn't all about her. But after what we've seen of her earlier this season, I think she really needed this.
-Gaia seriously needs to die. I can't remember the last time I hated a character so much.
-Octavian/Livia--WOW, those two are going to make a scary and disturbing couple. How far Octavian has come since his Max Pirkis days. And much as I hate Octavian-the-character for it, I think this episode was a good (and Rome-appropriate) way of demonstrating Octavian's marriage "reforms."
-Pullo, I really did not need to see you ripping people's tongues out with your teeth. Ew.
-This is dumb, but I really hope they resolve the feud between Vorenus and his daughter.

And this is really random, but I want to see a proper married couple on this show, because I want to hear them yelling "coniunx!" at each other. It sounds like such an angry word, y'know, one that you'd yell.

Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to seeing how they deal with Atia/Antony/Cleopatra and Octavian/Livia in the last two episodes. Hopefully, it will be movie-worthy, because that's about how much air-time they have left this season, and the rest of the plot is just about right for a movie!

For an amusing time . . .

2007-03-09T04:59:00.000-05:00

. . . put Boris Johnson and "Professor Mary" together in a room, discussing Classics. I have little to add to "Professor Mary's" post, except to say that I'm sure her presence and thoughtful comments added to the general entertainment and enjoyability of the event as well. And, in case you're interested in Boris Johnson's book, The Dream of Rome (to which he referred and cited a few times last night!):

Anyway, I was reading this article on lice and human evolution, and I have to admit I laughed as I recalled the line from Rome about seeing "a Roman woman fucked by a baboon."

Also, for those interested in the new movie 300, here are Paul Cartledge's thoughts (article stolen shamelessly from rogueclassicism). The important distinction I want to make now about the movie is that it is under no illusion and has not tried to advertise that it is by any means a "true" story of the battle of Thermopylae. The adaptations that tick me off are the ones that claim they are the "true" or "historical" story of whatever and then are completely off to some ridiculous extent and, to boot, are also lacking in actual entertainment level (besides in their being absolutely ridiculous).

I may change my tune about this movie after I've seen it, though. I reserve that right if it's lacking in entertainment levels.

Lastly, Debra Hamel has made a hip new video about her book, Trying Neaira (and she posts a crisper, but not youtube, version here).

HBO's Rome S2 Ep 7 (and Showtime's The Tudors)

2007-03-05T13:22:00.000-05:00

So I was asked to advertise the new Showtime show, The Tudors. They tell me they wanted me to advertise it because of my post on Alexander, but let's be honest--it seems to target the HBO's Rome audience (except for the part where it's about Henry VIII, not Romans). Thus, I'm pimping it before my weekly Rome review.

Anyway, The Tudors stars Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who was apparently Cassander in Alexander (and just for some other weird facts, he's going to be Branwell Brontë in Brontë and was apparently Elvis in a 2005 TV movie--I don't pretend to understand).

Videos, images and such, can be found here.

And if you are so lucky as to be residing in the U.S. at the moment, you can catch a preview here with the password "Sneak Peak"--and after March 12, it will have the entire first episode.

Just so you ALL know, I have indeed sold out, because they're offering me a "prize pack" from Showtime, and I want to see what this "prize pack" is.

But also, I'm pretty curious about this show. It looks like it could be fun. They also certainly seem pretty keen on using sex to sell this one.

And now for Rome!!! What can I say?? This is possibly the most brilliant episode ALL SEASON, and it was DEFINITELY worth the wait!

SPOILERS, as uaual.

Where to even start? Well, we open with Servilia grieving and putting on the death mask of Brutus. I have to admit that as soon as I saw this, I said to myself, Servilia is going to off herself this episode. Keep reading to see if I was right!

We then see Posca marrying Jocasta!! I had read some spoilers a bit ago but had forgotten everything but the fact that Posca gets married. I think I laughed out loud when I saw this! Atia's arrangement, of course. Jocasta was miserable. I'd feel more sorry for the girl, but I never really liked her bad influence on Octavia anyway.

Antony and Atia have an adorable moment at the weddding (even though Antony is winking at other girls), where you can see that deep down the two do love each other in the best way possible for two such as themselves. We also, thankfully, finally have a shaved Antony. I guess the beard is only for when he's off fighting.

In the middle of the wedding we're interrupted by Servilia at the door kneeling with her slave pouring dust on her as she (Servilia) chants, "Atia of the Julii, I call for justice!" Atia decides to ignore her.

Memmio's man is seducing Vorena.

Lepidus tells Antony and Octavian of displeasure from high ranking senators. They decide to divide Rome up. Antony actually takes a sword to the map! (After Lepidus says, "one can't simply ch-chop it up like c-cabbage!"

Atia's still being driven crazy by Servilia.

Gaia (ok, lemme just rant now--I've always despised this character, and she only make my blood boil in this episode in ways that I can't even begin to describe) threatens Eireni. She goes to tell Pullo. Pullo needs to beat Gaia.

Gaia seduces Pullo, and they end up having sex instead. See why my blood's boiling???

Atia finally goes out to confront Servilia, who curses her. To seal this curse, she kills herself. So does her serving lady. Beautifully done, as all Servilia's curses are. Even better, though, it's successful.

Impressively, Atia looks actually like she's going to cry as Servilia curses her--like she actually believes. When Servilia kills herself, Atia, the poor woman, actually looks completely DISTRAUGHT that she loses her favourite foe! Antony, of course, says what we're all thinking: "Now that . . . is an exit."

Herod goes to bribe Antony, who decides not to tell the rest of the triumverate. Posca is given nothing of this bribe and runs off to tell Maecenas (for a reward, of course, and anonymity).

Timon and his bro are plotting to kill Herod.

Octavian confronts Antony about the bribe, and we discover that Antony can do math. Octavian: "I had hoped you might have learned some humility and discipline. I see now that you are still the same crude, arrogant lech that you always were." Antony: "That's right, just the same--AND STILL FUCKING YOUR MOTHER!"

Gaia is pretending to behave in front of Eireni--for some devious purpose, of course.

Vorena is sleeping with Memmio's man, when Memmio comes in. Memmio pretends to be horrified and then says he must tell Vorenus. Vorena begs him not to tell and says she'll do anything. He gets her to spy on her dad.

Atia suggests a marriage between their two houses (Antony and Octavian). Antony: "I don't care if all Italy burns, I'll not marry him." (Yes, Antony is so funny!) Octavian thinks this is a good idea, but he has a TWINKLE in his eye. If you know your history, you may know what this TWINKLE means. I started laughing, b/c I suspected the horrible trick he was about to play.

Octavian sends his mom away before discussing things with Antony. Atia looks very happy.

We also see Octavia and Agrippa are still together.

Vorena is snooping around Vorenus' papers. Vorenus comes in, and she lies and says her sister needs a new dress.

Octavian watches as Antony and Atia have a "moment" together (yes, you know what I mean). He walks away, and Antony says they need to talk. Atia says they should take a break from sex until their wedding night. Antony says they need to talk.

Next scene is a wedding. We see Atia. Then we see Octavia, and we see she is the one marrying Antony. I must say, this is the most brilliant way they could have gotten back on track with some of the history here. I died laughing. Then I felt horrible for . . . well, everyone involved. Atia and Agrippa looked so distraught! And poor Octavia looked like she was going to vomit!

Maecenas wouldn't leave Agrippa alone and kept talking to him about "poor Atia." hah!

Octavian explans to Atia that he needed the match to be a clear political statement, not one of lust. Haha, whatever. You had to see that coming after Antony rubbed it in to Octavian earlier about "fucking" his mother. Atia yells at Antony, who says he still loves her. She says he cares more about power than her. Antony still wants her. Atia response, "Oh I see, first you betray me--and now you propose to betray my daughter!" Love her.

At the marriage procession, we see fauns. Yes, fauns! Also, Timon and his bro are going to kill Herod, but Timon, after killing so many others, backs down. He and his bro fight, and Timon kills his bro instead. I miss when Timon was horseshit man, personally.

Awkward moment when Octavia and Antony are in bed. Octavia says "do as you like," and they consumate the marriage. I feel so horrified for Octavia! She sure gets thrown around there . . . (especially if we remember last season)

Servilia's voice is heard as Atia realizes that Servilia succeeded in cursing her by Octavian's decision to have Octavia marry Antony instead. Poor Atia! (Well, poor Servilia too. I'm actually a Servilia girl, myself, but this is the first time I've felt bad for Atia in ages).

Gaia goes to get herbs for an abortion. She's clearly planning on getting Eireni to miscarry. Shock! Horror! And the episode ends.

Overall?? I love how everything is connected in this show. I love how beautifully Servilia died (even if I saw it coming, but still beautifully done), true to her nature, and I love how this curse instigated the "correction" of the Octavia/Antony marriage. I've been wondering how/if they were going to do that for ages! I'm SO glad they did, because even though Antony/Atia is exciting to watch, it bugged me that Antony was supposed to marry Octavia. Of course, now it's just really gross to think about.

Granted, there is still a lot they leave out, but considering how complicated the relationships were in "real history," I'm not surprised they chose to simplify. I don't think an audience without much knowledge of the period could keep track of all the characters that would have to come in and out if they followed "straight" history anyway.

The biggest sore thumb, though, was the Antony/Atia relationship seeming to be in the way of the Antony/Octavia marriage, and that's been rectified, so I am once again happy.

On Museums and Sith Lords . . . er, Ladies

2007-03-04T06:35:00.000-05:00

So Friday, I went up to the Colchester Castle Museum with Mary Beard's class.

It's a lovely exhibit, filled with more "ancient stuff" than I feel like I see in a lot of D.C. exhibits and a whole lot of fun interactive high and low tech things. And while I did profess a preference for going to museums to see actual artefacts, rather than computer simulations, they did have a pretty neat virtual Colchester computer program that I wish they'd sell to visitors! (Because, frankly, I didn't want to waste time playing with that when there were so many ancient things to look at!)

In completely different news, one of my readers who happens to know me in real life has accused me of putting on a different "persona" here than I do in real life! When I asked her to clarify, she pointed out that I was actually crazier in "real life." Well, I really must explain myself! It is not that I wish to deceive you, dear readers, but I figure what with professionals occassionally stopping by and possible future employers or people involved with deciding acceptance/grants/whatever possibly stumbling on this blog, I probably shouldn't post about How Crazy I Actually Am.

Also, my parents sometimes read this. ::waves::

But, just to give you, dear readers, a taste of What I'm Actually Like, I shall tell you all a story from my undergraduate days. I'm sure anyone who knew me then who hasn't already figured out Who I Am will immediate know me for my true self!

One nice Halloween day, I decided to show my true colours. I dressed up all in black, complete with a black cloak and . . . no, I did not don a pointy hat! I grabbed my trusty bright red lightsaber (which I stole from Darth Vader). Thus, I headed off to class! No, seriously, I went through my classes like this, definitely more dressed up than anyone else on campus. This made for an especially dramatic entrance when I was running late to my English class.

Also, in my defense, everyone wanted to "touch" or "play with" my lightsaber anyway. ;-) I could tell the Incriminating Stories about that, but I don't think the World is ready to Know!

Addendum: To make this story somewhat Classics related, 1) I spent most of the day in the Classics department, and 2) I was going by "Darth Medea" if anyone asked.

Technology: good or evil?

2007-02-27T17:34:00.000-05:00

I feel a little dense for only just now discovering this, but there's a wonderful website for The Women's Classical Caucus. Free membership for students for the first year too!

On a completely different note (or maybe not?), I've been seeing a lot of things lately here and there about instructors and their beef against technology. On the one hand, I agree when they argue they shouldn't be forced to change styles of teaching that have worked for hundreds of years without technology just so students can be more entertained in the classroom and instructors can seem more hip. It's ridiculous, often, the things we expect instructors to do that have absolutely nothing to do with their subject material. On the other hand, I'm growing tired of this perception of technology as an inherent evil. iPods and facebook do not MAKE students unresponsive and inattentive and lazy. Kids aren't encouraged in the right ways both at home and in schools (and it doesn't help when admin continually forces instructors to cater to whiny, bratty students and parents who think their children are the next Messiah), so they don't bother to do schoolwork. That's the problem, not technology.

Actually, I was reading a very interesting book today, by Marianne McDonald, Ancient Sun, Modern Light: Greek Drama on the Modern Stage. I only just started it, but so far, I think this is a wonderful book, and I'm very excited by her ideas and her style (and I think everyone should read it).

However, this paragraph in the preface did make me balk:

"Theater is one of the last repositories of thought. Television with its sitcoms, soaps and video games is one of the more insidious drugs infiltrating the world. We see also that even war can be represented as an elaborate video game; we concentrate on the 'hits' rather than losses or human deaths. We are losing the ability to think and reason, enslaved instead by the image that demands no response on our part besides the simple act of perception. We should restore danger to television and encourage the performance of plays that demand a response on our part. We must also encourage the performance of plays in theaters and make them more financially accessible to all people. Local productions should be a part of every grade school, high school, or university. The heritage of classics should not be given only to the elite, but allowed to enter the dialect of a wide public that represents the diversity of our country." (p. 12)

I agree with a large part of this, except that I again don't think that television is an "insidious drug." Frankly, I know plenty of people go and see plays with as much (lack of) care as they watch television--only it costs them more and takes more effort, so they dress up and consider it a night out. A lot of people aren't actually engaged enough to walk away and provide an ounce of analytical thought about what they've just paid money to see, any more than they can tell you about a television show. Just because their hands are engaged in clapping and they're forced to remain silent during the show (and honestly, the set-up is not so different from a classroom in many ways, except that the dark theatre can only encourage sleeping!), it doesn't mean their minds are engaged in thinking. On the flip side, television, while more convenient to lazy people, can be just as stimulating as a play. I know plenty of people who can analyze a television show or movie just as well as we expect people to analyze books in school. And maybe it's my own sci-fi bias, but I know a lot of sci-fi shows that encourage intelligent discussion and mental interaction (witness many scientists who claim inspiration from Star Trek). And how many people are discussing Rome and its historical accuracies and interpretations?? Hell, I've even seen a book of essays on Firefly (not to mention the numerous books on the philosophy of certain television shows--everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to The Simpsons. And while there is a lot of truly bad fanfiction out there, there is also a lot of truly inspired fanfiction too. At its worse, yes, television can rot brains, but at its best, it can be a great source of intellectual and creative stimulation.

The same thing could be said of live theatre and even of books. I think the important thing is that we are taught how to think for ourselves by others who do so. This knowledge can be spread through any medium.

And a minor quibble, but I'm also not entirely sure that our over-exposure of violence in modern culture is necessarily worse than the ancient Greeks hiding violence on stage. Is that any less truthful?

And my apologies to Marianne McDonald for making her a scapegoat for my television rant. It's obviously a very popular belief, and it really only struck out at me today because of other recent complaints and the fact that I actually agree with most of the rest of what she says.

Links, various and sundry.

2007-02-26T17:44:00.000-05:00

I feel guilty that my posts have mostly been on HBO's Rome lately. But to be honest, I've been too busy to keep up with the online Classics world. It's a little calmer now (certainly helps not to be ill!), and there is no episode of Rome this week. Thus, we shall move on to bigger and better things! Mostly, I found a few cool links from skimming all the mail I didn't read this past couple weeks on the Classics-L list.

Firstly, King Tut photos from the original find are finally on display (click the link for details).

Also, there's apparently a program now for helping to learn declensions, called DECLINATIO. There's a demo version, but you apparently have to buy the full program.

And, according to a survey, Ancient Greek is said to boost modern minds. It's not the most scientific way of finding out, but it's a nice thought, I suppose.

The best for last, Oedipus (with vegetables):

Oh, and one thing that I don't understand is how a tomato and broccoli can mate and make a potato . . .

Although, since B and P are labials, you take the B from the broccoi for the first letter and make it a P, shift the initial T from "tomato" to where the M is, remove the M--then you have "potato."

HBO's Rome S2 Ep 6

2007-02-19T13:14:00.000-05:00

So I spoke too soon last time and relapsed shortly after. I think I'm alive again. ::knocks on wood::

It's sort of silly for me to do an actual summary, seeing as they have detailed summaries on the official site (and as I have work to do!). But a few quick thoughts.

SPOILERS, as usual.

-Antony's beard weirds me out. But Antony and Atia do look good together coming out of the tent in their furs and whatnot. Still, I prefer clean-shaven Antony.
-Is there no end to the people Atia will murder to "protect" her daughter? Still, very amusingly done, though I'm sure Octavia would once again think otherwise.
-Oh how far Timon has come! From Atia's horseman to trying to save his people from handing themselves over to the Romans. I do like that they're pursuing this thread though (in the wider political sense, not the Timon has come so far sense).
-Octavia and Agrippa really do make an adorable couple. And it's really about time Octavia had something decent happen to her.
-The old Vorenus seems to be returning to some degree. But I don't really like where his character has been. They're doing a good job of not ignoring that he's gone to the "Dark Side" while reforming him, but I don't think I'll personally ever be able to come to terms with what they did to him before. So anything they do to him now will probably just seem odd to me.
-Cicero's death made me sad. A good portion of that was because we come to terms with the fact that our beloved Pullo really is a killer but somehow manages to be so in an "awww, cute!" manner. That's just wrong--and disconcerting. But I like how Cicero had come to terms with his death, as he had come to terms with his position in his earlier conversation with Antony (before fleeing).
-Once again with Vorenus & Pullo influencing major events by minor happenstance. I like how the children turned Cicero's letter into a hat. :-P
-Poor Cassius and his lack of birthday cake. It occurs to me I haven't the foggiest idea if Romans had birthday cakes.
-Brutus' death was SO brilliantly done. And it mirrored Caesar's oh so well. And where is that little ring off to now? I like how they ride right past his body when saying it has not yet been found. "People appreciate the little touches" (in reference to their heads being packed in salt to ship back to Rome) was an endlessly amusing line.
-Lastly, I don't much like Octavian anymore. He was much more adorable as a boy. This is not Simon Woods' fault. I mean, the poor boy had to grow up and murder people, y'know. Fact of life and such. I am, however, waiting for him to smack Antony (who really needs to just shave).

Oh, from last episode, has anyone figured out the hand signal Vorena is making at the end? That is, has anyone seen anything from a legitimate source on whether such hand signals were used? It doesn't seem like Rome to pull these things out of nowhere, but I hadn't seen such things before. The official site says her hands are shaped as horns, and it's a curse.

I'm (sort of) back.

2007-02-15T13:03:00.000-05:00

Many many thanks to those of you who wished me well and such. I'm now well enough to see people again, which is nice. However, I have things to do and papers to write, so I'm going to forego the Rome review tonight.

I am, however, going to make two quick responses to recent google searches that have landed people on this blog.

To the person who searched for "kalevala fanfic": I love you. Please e-mail me! I want Kalevala fanfic too! Well, good Kalevala fanfic, but I should hope anyone who took the time to write such fanfic would have enough care with it so that it wouldn't be horrible, at least.

To the person who searched for "jason from medea misses the aristotelian mean": Jason misses the entire BOAT. In fact, he misses the entire boat so much that a plank falls on him and kills him. I wish I could say things like this in essays, but that's why I have a blog.

Lastly, I have a brand new favourite piece of art: The "gorgon" head at Bath. It is, of course, not a gorgon head, because it's not a woman. But it's an excitingly odd mix of a gorgon and the Celtic influences and reminds me a lot of the "Green Man."

Ok, so it's not quite the Pan & Goat statue, but still--I love it. So there.

And you may attribute the oddness of this post to residual delirium from my illness.

Sorry, folks!

2007-02-12T14:18:00.000-05:00

I appear to have come down with something. So there won't be a Rome review today. Perhaps tomorrow! Apologies!

HBO's Rome S2 Ep 4 (and some cast notes before that)

2007-02-05T10:59:00.000-05:00

So the popular google search of the night seems to be regarding the cast change for Octavian. I'm not sure why this seems to be such a surprise to people, as Max Pirkis, wonderful actor though he is, has been too young for quite some time now. It would have been quite absurd to see him winning over Antony in battle!

Anyway, for those who didn't already read the comments, the cast for each episode can be found in IMDB.com. Some of these are obviously going to be spoilerish. But the last time I checked, I found out all sorts of interesting things about the actors!

Lindsey Duncan played another one of my favourite people--Katherine in Under the Tuscan Sun. She was also an android voice in Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace. And, like our beloved Cicero, she had a Jane Austen role--Mrs. Price/Lady Bertram in Mansfield Park (1999).

Polly Walker also had an Austen role. You'll never guess--Jane Fairfax in the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma. I think my jaw fell off when I read that. Pictures here.

And our newest cast member, Simon Woods, was in the new Pride & Prejudice as Mr. Bingley. That sort of makes me laugh.

Actually, Ciaran Hinds was Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, but that's Bronte, not Austen. It was also a strange version of the book (but then, most of the Jane Eyre movie adaptations are strange).

Edited to add: And my friend tells me he was also Captain Wentworth in the 1995 Persuation. So, Rome and Jane Austen--whodda thunk? He's also in the bad 2000 Jason & the Argonauts for that matter.

Anyway, on to the episode! SPOILERS as usual!

Picking up from where we left off last week, we see the kitchen girl dip her fingers in the stew and try some. She then brings the stew to Atia, and Atia requests that she sing "Crown of Sappho." Because I'm just that good (hahahaha), I recognized it immediately as Sappho 1. I'm really not "that good." It's the most commonly used Sappho, and Aphrodite's name is pretty easy to catch. That and I'm technically working with that poem at the moment (though my energies have been directed much more towards Sappho 31--and if anyone wants the text and can't find it online, I'll type it up). She gets through maybe two lines before we see blood coming out of her mouth. She tries to sing a little more, to her credit, but they soon realize she's been poisoned. Servilia's boy peeks in and tries to run off when he sees his failure.

Octavia and her new friend then come home to see Atia and Timon torturing the boy. Atia says Servilia is responsible and has said so, so Octavia asks why she's still torturing the boy. Atia says it's because the evidence won't be permissable in court unless the slave's been tortured (yay research team). Atia then tells the boy she'll spare his life if he says who sent him. He tells her Servilia, and then Atia tells Timon to kill him and dispose of the body.

Castor, who apparently hired the boy into Atia's house, comes begging forgiveness and offers his life. Atia suggests castration but then says eunuchs are unfashionable and sends him off warning him to buy boys from the market rather than picking them up from the street.

Timon kills the boy but looks obviously distressed about it. He goes home with blood still on him and argues with his brother about being a Roman and being a Jew. The argument escalates until he has his knife at his brother's throat. Then his boy sees him.

Then we're at Mutina, where Pullo seeks Vorenus. Instead, he runs into Octavian all growed up! Octavian offers to help search among the dead and then marks his seal for Pullo so that he can get through to Antony's army without problems.

Octavian goes to give his victory speech and tell his army they're going back to Rome for their money. I might also note that Simon Woods really looks like he's been studying Max Pirkis' Octavian. He's kept some of the same mannerisms, and I'm pretty happy with his continuation of the role. Agrippa is getting sent home to give news to his family and the senate. Agrippa looks very happy to be seeing Octavia again.

Pullo goes after Antony's army and finds Vorenus and tells him the children are a live. Antony gets an update about the dead while getting stitched up and decides to set up base camp in the mountains. Posca objects, but is ignored as always.

Vorenus comes up and asks permission to leave. Antony: "Now that is a real soldier for you--most men just slip away in the night, but this one--he asks permission before he deserts me. Well, what is it?" Vorenus tells him his children are alive but in slavery and that he must find them. Antony, surprisingly, lets him go. Then he tells them to tell everyone he'll get revenge--and first on Octavian.

Brutus, meanwhile, is getting ready with an army.

Servilia goes to pray to Isis (I thought it was this statue from the Capitoline museum, but it's not quite the same, oh well), and she is abducted. Next, we see her Atia's torture chamber, where Atia reminds her that Servilia promised her a slow and painful death. So Atia won't kill Servilia until she begs her to end her suffering. Servilia "stands up" to her (verbally). And so the torture begins. Atia asks, "have you had enough?" but Servilia only spits. Atia tells Timon to continue, and Timon finally loses it. Atia tells him to cut off her face, but he lets Servilia go instead and grabs Atia by the neck, screaming, "I am not an animal!"

Vorenus and Pullo are heading to the slave camp, and Pullo decides he better clear things up and assure Vorenus that he never slept with Niobe. He then makes Vorenus feel better by telling him that Evander "screamed like a stuffed pig." Vorenus replies, "Good."

Pullo warns Vorenus that the slave camps aren't pretty and asks if Vorenus will kill the boy. Vorenus says that honour demands it.

Servilia is home being attended by her slavewoman and seeming very understandably disturbed.

Agrippa arrives in Rome, and Octavia is shocked that Octavian won. Agrippa accidentally blurts out his feelings for Octavia (so cute!), who suddenly changes the topic to her brother's eating. Agrippa apologises and Octavia says she's sure they'll be good friends once they get to know each other.

Atia comes in and is told the news. She looks horrified before she's reassured that Octavian is fine and won. Hard to tell what she's thinking about Antony, though . . .

Agrippa goes to Cicero with the news, and Cicero looks very concerned about the new Caesar and his army coming to Rome. "Gods I'm so tired of young men and their ambitions." Agrippa says that Octavian only has the interests of the Republic at heart, and Cicero warns, "I felt the same when I was a young man, but it is all vanity, you know--vanity."

Pullo and Vorenus arrive at the slave camp, pretending their bounty hunters. Pullo says they're looking for runaways who belonged to Caesar and presents Octavian's seal. They aren't believed, but Pullo uses his intimidating glare. They find the younger daughter and the boy (whom Vorenus accepts and hugs), at which point the slavers realize they're not bounty hunters. The eldest daughter isn't with them, though, and they find her with other women of her age being used as you'd expect. Vorenus, again, goes mad and kills the slaver before they walk off with the children.

Because Classics is related to everything, and everything is related to Classics

2007-02-03T15:48:00.000-05:00

Admittedly, this is a huge stretch for a Classics link, but I'm the one who deems what is and is not a Classics link on this blog! So, without further ado, I give you a delightfully amusing comic, Cheshire Crossing, which features Alice Liddell (of Alice in Wonderland fame, but also the daughter of Henry Liddell, of Liddell & Scott Greek-English Lexicon fame, hence the Classical relatedness! baha!), Wendy Darling, and Dorothy Gale. Enjoy!

In more related news, another article on Romans in China, specifically possible descendants.

Lastly, an article on nudity in ancient Greece.

Fun stuff!

More ancient beer! And other stuff . . .

2007-01-30T12:49:00.000-05:00

The problem with HBO's Rome, for me, is that it almost ruins Cicero for me. Don't get me wrong--David Bamber is a wonderful actor. However, his Mr. Collins made such a great impression upon me that whenever I see him as Cicero, I think of Mr. Collins in Pride & Prejudice. This is wrong--and, frankly, a bit horrific.

But he has done some wonderful work as Cicero also, to the point that he's made quite an impression on me as Cicero also. So whenever I think about Cicero, I think about David Bamber as Cicero. Then I think about Mr. Collins. It hurts. Poor Cicero!

Anyway, the Classics-L list provided some great links today. There's a nice article on ancient beer and the history of beer. I still think wine is better, but I'd be interested in trying this ancient brew.

There's also a nice link on stolen gladiator reliefs being found. It has a great picture too!

HBO's Rome S2 Ep 3

2007-01-29T15:47:00.000-05:00

This episodes blew me away. And, as usual, SPOILERS.

In an attempt, perhaps, to make up for the excessive female nudity last season, though, it has now switched to excessive male nudity. However, it wasn't all without purpose. I think it did a particularly good job of illustrating the social role of sex and rape and the dynamics male/male relationships.

I'm not even sure where to begin with the spoilers, though!

We'll start with Pullo and Vorenus. Vorenus continues to be a major ass. He and Pullo argue because Vorenus makes an asshole decision about one of his men having raped the nephew of another man. Vorenus' decision is going to lead to gang war, and Pullo is actually trying to prevent the chaos. Vorenus' man is hurt, and Vorenus decides to establish his power by having the other man raped. In a later argument, Pullo reminds Vorenus he's his friend and that, among other things, he took care of Evander. Vorenus asks him about this, and Pullo realizes he slipped up and has to confess that he knew about Niobe and killed Evander. Vorenus accuses Pullo of having slept with Niobe, and they fight. In the end, they break a wall and fall into the other room. Eirene helps Pullo up, and they walk off. Vorenus is left on the floor sobbing.

Meanwhile, Antony is trying to get the province of Gaul when his term is up as consul, claiming, of course, that he likes the weather there better. He brings in Cicero to propose it to the senate. Cicero, however, knows this routine all too well. He claims the senate will think Antony plans to set himself up like Caesar, and Antony says he's only left with one choice. Cicero says that it always comes to this. Antony agrees, since he won't take bribery--and then asks to be sure. Cicero says no, of course. Antony dances around the threat, and Cicero finally says he won't capitulate unless the threat is actually made. Antony gives one of his usual detailed threats, and Cicero looks properly threatened. And at some point in all this, we see Antony pissing in a plant pot right next to Cicero with the later looking on in horror. A remarkable scene, to be sure.

Agrippa has also come to town bearing news about Octavian for Octavia and Atia. Agrippa first sees Octavia playing the lyre and looks smitten. Octavia (who has a new friend Jocasta) wishes he would write more often, and Atia denies having a son in front of Octavia and Agrippa. She also sends a message to Antony that Agrippa is in town. Antony, when he returns, says he already knew about it and doesn't care. In front of Antony, however, she is clearly worried about her son and makes Antony swear he won't hurt him.

And during all this, Servilia is not sitting on her ass doing nothing, of course. She has plans to poison Atia. She's hired a boy (the same one who's taking it from other men, I believe) to infiltrate Atia's house and have her poisoned. He comes to Servilia's house wanting more money, which he gets. Then he demands that if Servilia wants Atia dead, she will kiss him. Surprisingly, she submits (I was really expecting her to trick him and slap him or something, but I guess she's that desperate). He also tells her that it's taking so long because Octavia dines with her mother every day. It would be easier if she wanted Octavia dead too, but Servilia (possibly because she does have some feeling for Octavia?) won't have it.

We also see, at some point, a brief scene of Vorenus' children and Niobe's sister cooped up. Niobe's sister manages an escape but is scared off before she can help the children out.

Meanwhile, back in the senate, Antony comes in and Cicero, apparently, has decided he's ill. Another senator reads something Cicero has written--basically calling out all of Antony's faults in a brilliant and shocking manner and, finally, calling him a woman. Antony attacks and kills the other senator (the one who's reading, of course). Cicero, meanwhile, is running away to Brutus et al.

Three months later, Pullo returns with Eirene to Rome because the gods told him to seek out Vorenus. He finds the place a wreck and Vorenus' gang in need of people to help them fight off the other gang (they've been at war since the guy got raped by Vorenus' men). Vorenus, he discovers, has left the city with Antony. He's about to give up and go back when Niobe's sister finds him and tells him that the children are alive.

Brutus, whom we'd seen earlier drunk, boasting about killing Caesar, and about to get into an argument with the Bithynians they're trying to recruit (the Bithynian king, by the way, wants to see a Roman woman fucked by a baboon--don't ask), is now baptizing himself--ok, not really, but it sure as hell looked and sounded like a baptizing, with the exception of a prayer to Janus. He wants to be reborn and, presumably, wash away the guilt of killing Caesar.

We then see that Octavia has finally gone off to dinner with her friend Jocasta, and Atia is finally eating alone. The boy Servilia hired has been flirting and pretending to be in love with the kitchen girl, so he has plenty of reason to be in the kitchen (where we saw him earlier). So he slips the poison in, and the last thing we see is the girl carrying the poisoned stew to Atia.

I hope I didn't miss anything important. It is a bit out of order, but the last scene is correct. Wonderful episode, and I can't wait until next week!

Links galore!

2007-01-26T16:05:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to post a few things, and now that it's Friday finally, I figure I should post them!

Firstly, the Cambridge Greek Play this year is Medea. Obviously, I think this is one of the most exciting things ever.

Secondly, I finally got a listen of Loreena McKennitt's new CD, An Ancient Muse, and I think it is absolutely gorgeous. Not that any of you read this for music recs, but if you feel like listening to the music recs of a Classics grad student, there you go.

Lastly, I realized the other day (you may notice in the comments of the previous Rome post) that there is new actor information for HBO's Rome on IMDB. It is potentially spoiler-ish, so I won't say anything in particular here and shall leave it up to your discretion.

HBO's Rome S2 Ep 2

2007-01-22T11:48:00.000-05:00

SPOILERS, as usual.

Another riveting episode of Rome! But since I have other things to do, I shall keep this entry in note form.

Also, I'm not entirely sure about this radical change Vorenus has gone through. Yes, he got screwed over after he tried his best to be extremely pius, but the change seems a bit extreme. I don't know. Maybe it works, but it's shocking anyway.

-Vorenus has been sitting around in mourning and not taking care of himself. He tells Pullo: "I have caused the death of my wife; I have caused the death of my children; I have caused the death of Caesar."
-Atia's jealous of Cleopatra
-Antony stalling on getting Octavian's money to him
-Cleo concerned about her son being accepted in Rome; Antony calls her a whore
-Erastes Fulmen's death has consequences--violence on Aventine. This has consequences for the businessmen, and Antony is asked to do something about it. He says, "Money, money, money! I'm surrounded by money grubbers!"
-Pullo brings Antony to help Vorenus; Antony asks Vorenus why he hasn't "opened [his] stomach"; Antony says he's Vorenus' master and blames him for the "war" on the Aventine; Antony offers "redemption"
-Servilia attends Atia's party; Atia offers friendship and forgiveness (haha) that Servilia says she can't honourable refuse (but looks quite displeased)
-Octavian noticed Atia's man outside and suspects his mother is plotting the murder of Servilia; he confronts her and says it'd "throw the Republic into choas"; Atia replies "I don't care"; Octavian goes to tell Antony, and Atia calls it off
-Cleo arrives with her son (4 yrs old); noticeable rivalry btwn her and Atia
-Timon's brother arrives
-Cleo leaves, and Atia whispers something in her hear about being a trollop
-turns out Timon's brother left Jerusalem because he'd been speaking out too loudly against the Romans; Timon warns him to keep it down
-Vorenus, under Antony's orders, calls together the collegiate captains, claiming the place of Erastes Fulmen; Antony will pay them off to stop the excessive violence and act in Antony's defence if need be; he says anyone who will not do business with him is his enemy; some of them start to draw their swords, but one reminds them they're meeting with Concordia; Vorenus picks up the statue of Concordia and smashes it, claiming "I am a son of Hades; I fuck Concord in her arse." The captains fall in line.
-Octavian asks about the money again and says he has a lawyer to help expedite the red tape; Antony gets angry and says he won't get the money then storms off; Atia tells Octavian to apologize, because Antony is the only protection they have
-Octavian decides to enter public life and announces that he will honour Caesar's request to give the plebs money; sells off his property to do so; Atia and Antony find out when the announcement is made publicly and are angry; he explains to them that if Antony goes on board, his name can provide protection when Antony steps down as consul
-Antony and Octavian get in to a huge tussle; Atia's clearly angry at Octavian but pulls Antony off of him; Octavia comes in at the end and yells at Antony for beating up on Octavian
-Servilia and Cicero thrilled about the quarrel between Antony and Octavian until Servilia asks for the senate to send for Brutus. Cicero says not yet.
-Octavian leaving to stay with Agrippa.

What would you do if asked to let in a Trojan Horse?

2007-01-21T08:55:00.000-05:00

Well, see what these people did!

It's an hilarious video. Do watch.

Something else I've been meaning to post about is the computer game Age of Mythology. I received this for Christmas and only had time to open it to run through the tutorial, but I noticed the little people in it answer you in Greek sometimes (just to indicate that they're following your commands). I was rather impressed with that, though I suspect the game doesn't really have any educational value. It looks like a fun game though.

(PC) (Mac)

What have the Romans done for us?

2007-01-16T16:04:00.000-05:00

A couple links from the Classics-L list today. Firstly, a lovely article by Mary Beard from the Guardian, Tacitus was no elitist. The comments are interesting too--though it turns into a grammar quibble at one point. As I recall, there have been actual studies showing that Latin helps on the SAT and other standardized tests more than any other language, though--not that other languages aren't helpful.

And on MSNBC, there's No Place Like Rome, discussing the Aeneid and HBO's Rome (spoiler free, except for one quotation that really won't ruin anything for you). It's interesting, but I find this part offensive:

"As you read about their tear-stained confrontation, it's hard not to smile—this might be the first modern love story. Dido gets mad because Aeneas has commitment issues. Aeneas, with one foot out the door, sounds like the original heel. Love? Marriage? No way. Look, babe, I've got an empire to found."

First modern love story? That summary alone sounds brain-suckingly familiar. Why do people always ignore the Greeks? Did they suddenly just go *poof* and not exist?*

This was pretty funny too: "If you were to watch the series and read the Aeneid at the same time, you'd get whiplash going back and forth between ever-cynical "Rome" and the Aeneid's unironic endorsement of duty, honor, country."

I know there are people who would argue with that last bit.

*Not that I think the Greeks were the first either, but for a culture people are supposedly familiar with, they certainly do get shafted a lot.

HBO's Rome S2 Ep 1

2007-01-15T13:47:00.000-05:00

SPOILERS as usual.

But before I get to that, a fun link on terrible student excuses.

A tip to those who wish to take over 20 credits with overlapping classes--clear things with your professor before signing up, and make sure you actually do all the work. Otherwise, you're the reason the rest of us have to fight with our schools to be allowed to do this! Yes, I had to sign a waiver saying that if I failed any of my classes, it would be my own fault. I thought that was already a given.

On to Rome! I can agree to some extent with this reviewer on the look of Rome (not enough colour), but I'm not convinced the episode was that poorly done. There are actually good scenes with the common people--a couple mob shots at the funeral (thankfully not unending, though) and actual discussion of the funeral itself amongst the common people at the end. If they weren't portrayed as a loud mob before that, it was so Antony could point out that the streets were silent and without boisterous cheering for a tyrant's death.

I'm also loving the continuing Atia and Servilia rivalry and Calpurnia finally getting to confront Servilia.

Some choice quotations:

Octavian convincing his mother to stay in Rome with him to get Caesar's will ratified: "If the will stands, and it might, you are mother to the richest man in Rome. If it the will is broken, Servilia has that honour."

Antony is clearly peeved, and Octavian is really coming in to his own.

Antony trying to convince the senators to go along with Octavian's plan, thus explains Caesar's status: "It will be as if he was struck by lightening."

Antony explaining what he'll do if they agree: "I will retire quietly to the provinces, where I will plow my fields and fuck my slaves--just like old Cincinnatus."

Brutus on not killing Antony after he's just stepped out to let them talk: "He is a guest in my house." Servilia: "He is not in the house; he's on the street."

Also wonderfully done was the continued juxtaposition of the funerals of Niobe and Caesar. But I must say, I prefered the funerals done in BBC's Ancient Rome.

Eirene also agrees to marry Pullo. Vorenus curses his children but then spends the rest of the episode regretting it. Pullo helps him when he discovers Erastes Fulmen took them. They clean the place out, killing his men before Vorenus confronts Erastes. Erastes says he took them as payment (raped, murdered, and thrown into the river), so Vorenus chops his head off and walks away with it.

Most of the important points can be found in the earlier linked review, though. I do really love how they show and talk out with witty lines the political situation. It is a lot of talk though, and I can see how that could be disappointing to some. But it'a balanced by lots of bloodshed and Antony sex--as per usual.

NASA and Rome

2007-01-14T15:47:00.000-05:00

Borrowing a bit from RogueClassicism today on NASA names. As usual, the names are chock full o' Classical content. A curious point, though, that they should think NASA HQ was full of Stargate SG-1 fans because of the suggested "Artemis." Firstly, even if I could remember a Goa'uld named Artemis (which I can't, but then I haven't really seen the later seasons), I don't think my first thought would be SG-1. I also recently watched the Superman movie and didn't think about that either. I think in this case it's just a case of liking the ol' gods. If you wanted an SG-1 or Superman tribute, I'm sure there would be far more obvious names!

In other news, a spoiler alerted review of HBO's Rome season 2. Doesn't seem very favourable, but methinks I'd have to see it for myself anyway. Plus I'm not sure some of the complaints would bother me as much as it did this author anyway.

Various and Shiny

2007-01-12T17:37:00.000-05:00

In the midst of my packing and jetlag and whatnot, I forgot that the news about Ithaca was being announced this week--and with success. There should be an update on the official site, but that doesn't seem to be working for me at the moment. There's a nice post on Rogueclassicism though.

Also, tonight there is a BBC2 reading of I, Claudius with Sir Derek Jacobi playing right at this very moment! I'm going to have to catch it on rerun because I forgot about that until my friend reminded me just now too. Jetlag's a bitch. And I don't usually get jetlag!

Lastly, I just discovered an older post on HBO's Rome board on an unofficial translation into Latin in the works. Sounds like fun!

One of the things they had briefly contemplated with BBC's Ancient Rome (not to be confused with HBO's Rome) was doing it in Latin, but that'd turn people off in a heartbeat. I wonder if they would've considered subtitles in Latin instead.

Speaking of BBC--does anyone know if they're picking up season 2 of HBO's Rome and when that's airing?

I don't make this stuff up!

2007-01-10T02:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I'll be back over the pond again soon. But I thought I'd share a little amusement with you, dear readers.

I was doing a perfectly innocent search on Medea (in fact, that was my only key word) at my undergrad university's library page when I came across a book titled Dark Angels: Lesbian Vampire Stories (it has since been republished as listed below in the Amazon link). This was quite shocking to me, as I could see no connection. It might have made more sense had I been doing a Sappho search at the time, but Medea? Well, it turns out one of the stories was titled "Medea," because one of the characters was named after her. I only got to read through the introduction to the collection (which was not without its research, to be fair, but it's clearly not scholarship either) and the story titled "Medea." It's not exactly riveting writing--the characters actually stop to talk about and push their neo-pagan mother goddess agenda at one point--but it may be worth picking up at your local (or university?!) library if only for the sheer oddness of it.

If you do pick it up, though, be warned that it is a book about lesbian vampires and not, shall we say, a collection of scary stories you'd read to your children or anything. There is definitely no pretence of subtlety.

In other joyful news, I'm sure many of you are aware that HBO's Rome starts again with S2 this Sunday the 14th of January. Right now, they appear to be rerunning S1 episodes. Personally, I'm quite excited!

In the Beginning

2007-01-05T00:59:00.000-05:00

Well, since I couldn't be at the APA meeting (and to think I'm missing exciting papers on Sappho and Plato and "queer icons" and the Classical Tradition and even Alexander Hamilton and HBO's Rome!), I finally made it up to the Sackler Gallery in D.C. to see In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000. It's only open through the 7th, but if you're in the D.C. area, I do advise you get yourself over there to see it (if you haven't already)! I'd plan at least three hours, though, at the museum just to get through the line and through the exhibit. It's quite a large exhibit. There are various different examples of biblical fragments, including some nice dual language Bibles. The blurbs are also pretty good for telling you what you're looking at and giving a bit of context.

The main problems with the exhibit were lighting (understandable, though) and placement within the cases (the placement within the room is done well, though, especially considering the number of people in at a time). I've noticed a lot of displays in England tend to have the ancient fragments/books parallel to the glass and close enough that you can get a good look, even with smaller writing (often achieved by a slanted display, rather than a normal box). This exhibit sticks to boxed cases, with the books/fragments at an angle, so there was quite a distance between you and the text. With my bad eyesight, I found it difficult (or impossible) to read the texts with smaller writing.

Picky detail, to be sure. It's definitely an exhibit well worth the trip, and there's plenty you can see and read even with bad eyesight. Certainly, the exhibit surpassed my expectations!

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T23:45:00.000-05:00

Apologies for the extended absence, but things were busier than anticipated over here. A lot to catch up on, and a lot of work to be done!

But I did get a chance to go up to the National Gallery of Art to see such fun things as a costume design for the opera Sapho (I think it was the Massenet, but don't quote me on that) and Cactus Man. Personally, I think Cactus Man should get his own comic.

Anyway, to bring in the new year, I give you (from Classics-L) an article on the reported properties of wine in ancient Greece. Something to think about with the festivities (well, assuming anyone's continuing them!).

Just fyi . . .

2006-12-18T22:21:00.000-05:00

I'm heading back to my side of the pond this week, so it may be a few days before anything "real" gets posted again (or anything at all!). Packing and jetlag is tiring!

Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of the Saturnalia!

Happy Saturnalia!

2006-12-17T16:01:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to wish all you dear readers a happy Saturnalia.

Can't wait for Christmas? Celebrate early with the Saturnalia! It's always nice to have the excuse of another holiday!

Another one of those "woe is me!" cultural "decline" posts

2006-12-16T20:10:00.000-05:00

Bronteana informed me of this link: It's the thoughts that count. After staring in horror and disbelief, I began to wonder how bad this really is. On the one hand, yes, it's utterly disgusting; on the other hand, it's probably good for business. The article emphasizes the sciences, but I wouldn't be surprised if good dead Classical languages are up there too. If people are buying "smart"-looking books, that means there's a market for them. If there's a market for them, that means they'll be made available.

Then again, if too many people are stealing up the books I want and making them unavailable instead, I'd be pretty pissed.

It used to be if you wanted to "look" educated, you'd actually--gasp!--get an education and, y'know, read so that you could rattle off useless information in conversations. I guess now you can just buy the books and not be expected to be able to discuss them.

But it seems pretty transparent to me. If I walk in to somebody's house and see certain books prominantly displayed, I ask them about them. If the person can't answer, then s/he's revealed as the shallow being s/he is.

It reminds me of those Latin tattoos people (who don't known Latin) get, though. Why get it if you have no real interest in it? Why pretend to be a snobbish intellectual if you're not? Frankly, I have a lot more respect for people who actively despise and fight against academics because we're (supposedly) all snobby and elitist. They may be wrong about (some of) us, but at least they're honest.

Then again, this isn't exactly a new phenomenon among humans, now is it?

Atia vs Servilia

2006-12-10T17:33:00.000-05:00

I thought this site was just too funny. How could you not love the both of them? Although, I must confess that I personally voted for Servilia.

Also, it looks like the official site for HBO's Rome is prepping for the new season starting Jan 14. How quickly time flies! I remember thinking I could never wait until Jan 2007. Apparently, I can.

Lastly, and not really Classicsly (yes, I realize I'm making up words), The Lord of the Rings, the musical, is opening in May/June. I had forgotten about this. I kept thinking it was a long way off. Apparently not. Am I disturbed? You betcha. Beyond disturbed. So disturbed that I might just have to see it.

I knew the musicalization of anything and everything in novel form would get out of hand someday. Hm, maybe they'll musicalize Apuleius' Golden Ass someday. (Please note, for anyone thinking this is even remotely a possibility, that I am being sarcastic. Nobody wants to see a musical of The Golden Ass. Nobody.)

The Shiny, the Distracting--the Library

2006-12-07T14:19:00.000-05:00

My apologies, dear readers, for leaving you for so long, but I had much to do finishing up my work for this term. But Orestes is done and put to rest, and I look now to much less depressing things--Sappho! And believe me you, despite her sometimes sad themes, the woman is much less depressing than Orestes. I suspect I shall cease having tragic dreams now.

But that is not my topic today. Today, dear readers, I intend to discuss libraries. Libraries for most people are a place of study. This seems obvious and a given. However, to me, they are a place of infinite distraction! When I was in there two days ago, I was struck by the powerful urge to look up something that was completely unrelated to the work I was supposed to be doing at the time. So I looked, but as I passed another shelf, I saw something else I "needed" to look at. The hours I can waste in a library are astounding.

And today, of course, I spent half of the afternoon researching Roman theatres for a friend of a friend--just because I could in this wonderful, distracting Classics library!

I really do think I get more of my actual work done when I'm in my room with a limited set of books.

This is not even to mention that by this point, I know most people, so that it's become the social hub of the Faculty as well. People know better than to bother you too much when you're actually working, but you can really get stopped for five conversations on your way in or out.

My conclusion? The Library = Shiny Centre of Information, Socializing, and Distracting Doom.

And as if the distraction of a normal well-stocked library weren't enough (ok, there is nothing "normal" about the Classics library here, but I get distracted in other libraries too), Mary Beard makes me drool over lost treasures of nineteenth century literature! I don't think I can express how much this excites me. If I weren't doing Classics, I'd be doing English literature, and my area would be either medieval lit, Shakespeare, or nineteenth century lit. When Classics and nineteenth century lit collide and have little babies (which is far more often than we'd discuss in most of my English classes), it makes my little head spin with glee. Glee, I tell you. Lots and lots of glee. 'Tis a gleeful thing.

Nigel Spivey's Songs on Bronze

2006-12-01T19:04:00.000-05:00

So I had a spot of free time (well, not really, but we'll pretend) today and decided to finally start Nigel Spivey's Songs on Bronze (and in case you missed it, Nigel Spivey can now be seen in Troy the Musical FOR ONE MORE NIGHT ONLY).

I must admit that I skipped to the part called "Jason and the Argonauts," which thankfully includes Medea's full story as well. And as the Medea lover you all know I am, I must say I was quite pleased.

I then went back to the beginning and started reading it normally, and I very much enjoyed his treatment of these familiar myths. He does such a wonderful job with the characterization, and I was quite moved reading most of it.

He does fairly standard treatments of the myths, but it's worth reading to see how he tells the stories and fleshes out the characters, even if you already know the stories. And for those who don't know the stories already, this may actually be a good read before plunging into Canongate Myth Series: Includes A Short History of Myth, The Penelopiad, Weight, and Dream Angus (Myths, The).

I'm not quite finished with the book (possibly tomorrow), but I expect it will continue to be as good as the beginning.

Britney Spears and more on the ancient computer

2006-11-30T19:18:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure if I should be allowed to laugh at this, because that just seems mean-spirited. Nevertheless, Britney Spears on Antigone (more at Christie's). To be fair, I've seen worse spelling and grammar (unfortunately!).

Perhaps this is just even funnier to me because Troy the Musical (two more days left!) includes a Britney Spears song.

In more enlightening news, there's more on the Antikythera Mechanism (the ancient computer) at Nature, as well as a podcast that includes a reproduced sound of the machine (about 2/5s of the way in).

Lots of links!

2006-11-29T17:56:00.000-05:00

Firstly, remember the world's oldest computer? Well, more study has been done on it, and it seems quite exciting!

-BBC: Ancient Moon 'computer' revisited (includes lovely pictures!)
-NYT: An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists (includes a picture also, but more in the BBC)

There's also a BBC article on "Man held for 'pharaoh relic' sale. They believe it's possible he really has the hair of a pharaoh.

Lastly, there's a (relatively) new-ish blog, the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project. I'm going to have to update my links soon (I keep saying this!) and hopefully remember to include this and a few others.

Randomness

2006-11-28T17:10:00.000-05:00

Hmm, I'm not hugely in a blogging mood today, as I've just (well, a few hours ago) finished another drafty draft of my paper. My brain is scattered, and I'm sure my draft is too. But no worries--another week left to revise it!

I'm at that point, though, where the more I pick at it, the worse it will probably get. That, of course, means it's time to step away for a day or two.

And I forgot to mention in my review of BBC's Ancient Rome that I wish they had shown Nero's "marriage" to Pythagoras rather than Sporus. Ok, so Sporus gets him sympathy points for missing Poppaea (except not really, because Sporus was castrated), but the Pythagoras wedding is so much more entertaining!

Lastly, here's one I'm stealing from rogueclassicism: Why we are all becoming 'Latin lovers'

In between the coughing . . .

2006-11-27T18:39:00.000-05:00

A couple things from Classics-L today.

Apparently, BBC radio is airing a reading of a comedy on building the Trojan Horse, called The Horse, which can be found here.

There is also a nice article on the 300 here.

BBC's Ancient Rome

2006-11-26T16:40:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally got to watch the episodes today (although I probably could have picked a better time for my screening!), and overall, I thought it was pretty good. It's not HBO's Rome's entertainment level, but that wasn't its purpose. On a strictly general educational level, I think the show works pretty well--and, in fact, better than I was expecting (and my expectations had gone up once I realized Mary Beard was consulting, so that is actually saying something).

The DVDs start with the Caesar episode, which is, quite frankly, rather disconcerting if you're familiar with HBO's Rome. As I recall, they specifically did not start with this when they aired it, which was certainly wise of them. To heighten the confusion, they had Karl Johnson (HBO's Cato) playing Marcellus and actually arguing with their Cato (Crispin Redman). I personally prefer Karl Johnson's Cato, but at least they had a better black toga for Cato in this BBC version. They also had an actor who looked so much like HBO's Pompey (Kenneth Cranham) that the group of us was actually convinced they were one and the same, but was really somebody else entirely it seems--one John Shrapnel.

One thing that I especially noticed in this episode but was true throughout all of them, though, was that all subtlety of action was gone. It really had to be, since they were condensing years of action into one hour. It was particularly striking in the Caesar episode, though, because HBO's Rome had had 12 episodes to cover what BBC covered in one hour. Thus Ciaran Hinds (HBO) could really milk it and be the kind of Caesar you'd actually follow while Sean Pertwee (BBC) just seemed like a mean tyrant. Besides which, it's just generally difficult to match Ciaran Hinds' Caesar.

The next episode was Nero, whom they portrayed as initially quite sympathetic but then later a raving lunatic--and I do mean he had seriously insane expressions on his face quite frequently. Poppaea was actually quite lovely as well. The biggest problem with this episode is that they were filming the gladiator scenes in what looked so obviously like the Colosseum--which was supposedly yet to be built! They thankfully did not call it the Colosseum, but for anyone who's actually familiar with the Colosseum, it was quite confusing!

Then was the Jewish War and the Flavians (curiously missing Domitian altogether, but the episode was really about the Jewish war more than the emperors themselves). It was either this episode or the one before it where we had a brief flash of the senate that accidentally included Karl Johnson (who earlier played Marcellus). I'm sure they meant it to be a generic senate shot, though. I can't recall much on this one, actually, except a few questions in the group on Roman warfare.

The fourth episode on the DVD was the Gracchus episode, which had some interesting moments. As Mary Beard pointed out, it has the wonderful corpse of Tiberius' father (actually, they do a nicer painted-up corpse of Poppaea in the Nero episode too). It also has rich moments between Tiberius and his mother, Cornelia. There is, of course, the perpetual problem of Gaius being left out. I think a nod could have been made to him, but it might have been equally awkward to then have to leave him when the hour was up.

The fifth episode was Constantine. Nothing severely anachronistic that I can remember (I always fear there will be crosses or something), but they certainly did not miss the opportunity to play up the Christian aspects. I thought the little toy models for the battle plans were funny, but maybe I was just loopy from my fifth hour of staring at a screen.

The final episode was "The Fall of Rome" with the sack of Rome. I'd almost argue from the way they portrayed each of these episodes, any of them could be argued as "the beginning of the fall of Rome." I actually had a hard time seeing where they were trying to show the rise of the Roman empire. I assume they meant starting with Gracchus and continuing with Caesar, but both of these were depicted as extremely destructive episodes in Roman history to be quite honest.

My two general "complaints" for the series:
1) stirrups?!
2) Eeeevery single episode seemed to need to include a woman looking extremely distraught and furious and thus egging men into action by calling for someone's destruction with mad fury in their eyes. Many of these made sense, but the strangest one was the random woman who collapsed as the Goths were marching off somewhere just so Alaric could come up to her so that she could tell him with mad fury in her eyes to destroy Rome. There is also, inevitably, some male figure purposely misguiding the emperor of each episode for his own evil (or just stupid) purposes. Again, many of these had reason, but it became a bit formulaic.

Anyway, overall, the series dealt much more with real history than I've come to expect from television shows, even if some of it was questionable. At the very least, I could see a person walking away wanting to know and learn more, though, and trying to grapple with the questions presented. In that sense, I do believe this series succeeds. Plus, it was pretty good entertainment, even if there were a few more battle scenes than I can usually stand.

Library theft and Seven Wonders

2006-11-25T19:24:00.000-05:00

I thought this was sad: Library worker allegedly took rare books.

I'm always a little torn when I see things like this. On the one hand, at least they have good taste, but then I sort of wonder why people with such good taste would want to steal such rarities from the public.

Of course, a cynic would point out to me that these things have more to do with money than "good taste." I refuse to believe it! Somebody who dedicates their time to working with such antiquities must do so because of good taste, I insist!

Yes, I realize I'm quite a deluded person at times.

Also, click here to vote for the new 7 wonders of the world. Options include the Acropolis, Colosseum, and Petra, amongst other gorgeous sites.

Troy the Musical

2006-11-24T16:13:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder, dear readers, that next week is Troy the Musical at Cambridge!! Details can be found here. Please do come, if you are able. Everything goes to charity!

Tickets are £5. You may also want to call to researve tickets (07947582634), since the rumour is that the show is selling quickly.

And don't forget the special guest star is Nigel Spivey! You KNOW you want to be there!

Ursula Le Guin

2006-11-23T17:17:00.000-05:00

It always makes me happy when science fiction authors acknowledge Classics, such as Ursula Le Guin does in her acceptance speech for the Maxine Cushing Gray award. I've always looked upon science fiction (loosely broadening this definition to include comic book superheroes also) as modern mythology, and thus I find the two heavily intertwined. It's nice when other people acknowledge that (directly or indirectly, as the case may be).

And if there's any doubt, we always have Lucian's Vera Historia. That piece never ceases to astound me. I need to reread it some day.

Corbett lecture with Sarah Broadie

2006-11-22T19:31:00.000-05:00

Glaukôpis is so pooped right now that she wonders why she decided to do NaBloPoMo. November is always a busy month (not helped when one comes down with colds)!

Anyway, Glaukôpis attended the Corbett lecture today featuring Sarah Broadie. She spoke about Plato's Timaeus-Critias dialogues and talked about the how they depicted the cosmos, the rational souls, and Atlantis. Quite an interesting lecture, though Glaukôpis confesses she has not read these dialogues in quite some time and is thus not in an especially good place to comment much.

Glaukôpis occasionally regrets not having been a philosophy major also in undergrad, but Glaukôpis really wanted to graduate someday and did not want to be an undergrad for six years. In fact, there are many things Glaukôpis wanted to study in undergrad, so her family is probably glad she managed to restrict it to three majors.

David Grene memoir

2006-11-21T18:18:00.000-05:00

My lovely professor back at UMD sent me this link to David Grene's (yes, of those Grene & Lattimore Greek tragedy translations) Of Farming and Classics: A Memoir.

Amazon.com: Of Farming and Classics: A Memoir

I think it's really quite nice that he has a published memoir. I'd even run out and get it now, except that I don't have $30 or time to read it. How sad! But hopefully some of you dear readers do!

An Ancient Muse and Crying Wolf

2006-11-20T18:10:00.000-05:00

Loreena McKennitt released a new CD called An Ancient Muse.

The blurb: “Tell me, O Muse, of those who travelled far and wide”

Aptly, it is an echo of Homer’s timeless Odyssey that introduces Loreena McKennitt’s seventh studio recording, the latest volume of a project she describes as “musical travel writing”. This time, the journey takes her in search of the Celts’ easternmost paths, from the plains of Mongolia to the kingdom of King Midas and the Byzantine Empire. Along the way, she muses on the concepts of home, of travel in all its incarnations, of the cultural intermingling that underpins human history and our universal legacies of conflict and hope.

Recorded at Real World Studios and featuring a host of acclaimed musicians, the album proffers a treasure trove of instruments, from harp, hurdy-gurdy and accordion to oud, lyra, kanoun and nyckelharpa (the Scandinavian keyed fiddle). Highlights include the seductive rhythms and Silk Road influences of first single “Caravanserai”; “Penelope’s Song”, a paean to steadfast love; and Loreena’s musical setting of Sir Walter Scott’s poem of star-crossed romance, “The English Ladye And The Knight”. Together, the nine songs that comprise An Ancient Muse conjure up a wide world’s worth of human stories that are as unique as they are unforgettable.

Unrelated, Mary Beard posts Crying wolf about the wolf-and-twins bronze in Rome. Either way, I'm not certain people would stop wanting to see it. It's still a famous and old piece of art, and frankly, it's a symbol of Rome. It's been such for so long that I don't really see people abandoning it just because we're now considering the possibility that it's not as old as we "thought" it was. Or maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part. I'm rather fond of the wolf. And people really are quite fickle.

Stonehenge

2006-11-19T18:22:00.000-05:00

I got this from rogueclassicism, and this part rather bothers me:

“In the case of Stonehenge, I suggest that the presiding deity was a prehistoric equivalent of the Greek and Roman god of healing, Apollo. Although his main sanctuary was at Delphi in Greece, it is widely believed that he left Greece in the winter months to reside in the land of the Hyborians – usually taken to be Britain.

I hadn't heard that about Apollo, but even that aside, it does bother me a bit when other gods are referred to as "equivalents" to certain Greek and Roman gods. Yes, syncretization went around all over the ancient world, but it's a rather Graeco-Roman-centric view, in my opinion. None of these gods, even between the Greeks and Romans, were exact "equivalents." At best, they were "similar" or "not unlike." There isn't a perfect paradigm of gods in each culture that lines up with the Greek or Roman gods. And if there is, there shouldn't be (well, it wouldn't be perfect anyway).

But that aside, certainly an interesting theory.

And now Glaukôpis is glad that blogging is done by typing rather than speaking. For her sore throat has grown quite painful, and she suspects her hacking up of lungs would scare her dear readers away quite quickly.

Off to London

2006-11-18T05:16:00.000-05:00

I'm off to London to see Evita today. This really has nothing to do with Classics, except that last time I was listening to it, I kept comparing it to Greek tragedy.

Methinks this is a sign that my brain has been eaten by Greek tragedy--well, that and the odd dreams I've been having!

Oedipus Max

2006-11-17T15:10:00.000-05:00

Feeling rather under the weather today, so this'll be short.

But in light of the Medea Project, I found this article called Oedipus Max: Four Nights of Anguish and Applause in Sing Sing about a play put on my male inmates.

You might also find interesting (if you missed it earlier) Mary Beard's thoughts on visiting prisons.

Being a Classicist

2006-11-16T13:42:00.000-05:00

It seems to me that Classicists tend to gain one of two reputations:
1) Old, Stuffy, Too Serious, Pretentious (and/or Boring), and Living in the Past.
2) One Word: Crazy.

Sometimes, I think, when we get too bogged down in our texts or our studies or whatnot, we exude 1. We take ourselves too seriously, and we really come off as dickheads (or we study tragedy too long, take it too seriously, and have disturbingly strange dreams ;-)).

Seriousness is a good thing, particularly when it comes to studying, but I think sometimes we all need to take a step back and remember not to take ourselves and our work so seriously that we forget why we're doing it and why we love it--and I mean the real love we have of antiquity, not the love of pretentiously knowing more Latin and Greek than the rest of the world. Sometimes we just need to enjoy that Plato's Socrates really is a Funny Man (c'mon, he's talking about the bloody Laws actually talking to him!) and worry less about . . . the things we worry about.

Sometimes we need to make crazy musicals about Troy or dress up and play Roman or even just walk into our Classics departments wielding lightsabers.

Sometimes, we just need to take a moment to sit back and talk about something else and not worry so much about that strange use of the subjunctive in [Pick-a-Text].

Amarna Exhibit

2006-11-15T07:01:00.000-05:00

Ohh, Amarna exhibit at University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology!! And how close I was to doing their post-bac program. Eheu. Maybe I can squeeze in a trip when I get back to the U.S.

I shouldn't really complain. I had forgotten until yesterday (when I friend pointed it out to me) that I can now do spiffy things like take day trips to spiffy places like Rome. And Paris!

Yes, I had sort of forgotten that being in England means the rest of Europe is as easy to access as NYC is back at home!

Latin Day!! And fish!

2006-11-14T07:12:00.000-05:00

It's LATIN DAY at the University of Maryland today! To all those going: have fun! To all those performing: break a leg!

Honestly, I'm jealous. I miss Latin Day! And I'm so excited! And I'm not even anywhere near there!

Everyone should have a Latin Day. Oh well, at least there's Troy the Musical to look forward to.

Also, here are a couple articles on the Roman shipwreck with fish sauce (well, bones).

And now I'm hungry, but that has nothing to do with fish sauce.

Mehercule!

2006-11-13T11:56:00.000-05:00

Apparently, I suck at being a girl, even in Latin. Here's a lovely article on ancient swearing--once again from Classics-L.

Perfect for that mid-semester stress!

Mid-semester blues

2006-11-12T16:40:00.000-05:00

Either it's been a slow news day, or I'm just not paying proper attention. Probably both. Or I'm forgetting something--which is also likely.

But in my efforts to keep up with NaBloPoMo, I shall write a bit about what I've been up to.

Honestly, it's mid-semester blues time--the time when homesickness strikes hardest and you wonder what, exactly, you're doing here. I have to keep reminding myself why I'm in grad school right now, rather than taking a year off. I'm also, of course, tired of my paper topic and spending almost more time thinking about future paper topics. Typical.

And, of course, while I don't miss my six or seven classes in a semester during undergrad, I do miss many of the people--both friends and professors. And, obviously, I miss my family and my birds.

There's really nothing for it but to slug on. And I'll be home for Christmas, though not the Saturnalia.

How are the rest of you holding up? I don't "hear" enough from my dear readers!

Oh! I can make this post a bit more useful. Borders coupons!

-20% off any book, CD, or DVD at Borders UK valid through the 30th (they've also been giving me free chocolate!)
-20% off at Borders US but only valid through tomorrow, the 13th

Holiday shopping for a Classics geek?

2006-11-11T23:49:00.000-05:00

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild!

In case anyone wants to buy me anything (haha) . . . but seriously, things you may find of interest:
-Shakespeareana (I own and love the Shakespearean insults mug, personally)
-Fruediana (personally, I could do without Freud)
-Descartes mug (click it! It's hilarious)
-the Socrates little thinker
-Birth of Venus pillow (it sings "Pretty Women", which is sort of creepy)
-philosopher finger puppets, including Plato!
-Here's looking at Euclid! t-shirt (bad puns are always a must for your Classics geek)
-Sisyphus watch

Academia in Drama and more on BBC's Ancient Rome

2006-11-10T16:46:00.000-05:00

Literally as my friend was just telling me (jokingly) there should be a TV show about Classics departments rather than another law or doctor show, this popped into my mailbox from the Classics-L list. Apparently, academia really is dramatic.* Although I'm not sure anyone would actually tune in to a TV show about Classics academia. Can you imagine the viewers? "Why aren't they talking about Shakespeare?!"

Although, I have always wondered why, in CSI-whatever, Horatio's friends don't pick up skulls and say, "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him, Horatio."

In completely unrelated news, Mary Beard has posted about the panel discussion I mentioned the other day. I was hoping she'd post about it, which is why I didn't provide quite as much as I might otherwise have done.

*Edit to add: I suppose the play Proof by David Auburn is another example of academia in drama, and that is, honestly, one of my favourite modern plays.

HBO's Rome

2006-11-09T18:49:00.000-05:00

For a nice preview of next season (thanks much to a friend for showing this to me), click here.

There are also a couple blogs about the show's status up on the official site.

Anyway, I was rewatching an episode today while doing some other things, and while I was re-impressed by how much detail had been accurate, they actually goofed up on something a lot more noticeable! They were using a couple bird species (macaws and cockatiels--a cockatoo too, but I think it was an umbrella cockatoo, which was a little more likely) from the New World and from Australia. Maybe there is something I'm missing, but I don't think the trade routes extended that far! But then, I don't know a lot about bird species and trading of them at that time. Anyone have any ideas? Specifically, I saw a blue and gold macaw and some cockatiels.

Father Foster and 300

2006-11-08T17:46:00.000-05:00

Exciting news, Father Foster is teaching Latin again! Where would we be without him?? There's even a nice audio link at the bottom of the post!

In completely unrelated news, if you haven't seen the trailer for 300, you can see it here (thanks to Bronteana for showing me the video!):

It is, um, interesting.

Ancient Rome and Google Ads (unrelated!)

2006-11-07T15:14:00.000-05:00

Even after hearing about numerous problems with GoogleAds, I decided to give them a go anyway. A few of you have actually decided to click here and there lately (thanks!), and it seems that the moment you actually start making a bit of money here, they decide to disable your account.

If I've twisted anyone's arms into clicking ads, my apologies.

I appealed their decision, but I don't know if it's worth it. And of course by talking about this here, I've probably discouraged anyone from ever clicking again!

Edit to add: These shouldn't be confused with the Amazon ads, which have been working quite nicely and, I hope, productively to your experience.

Anyway, on to more fun things!

I just got back from a wonderful discussion panel on Ancient Rome, the Rise and Fall of an Empire with Mark Hedgecoe (director and producer), Simon Baker (researcher and author of the book--link will be below), Professor Mary Beard (history consultant).

I haven't actually had the chance to view the series myself, but it was a very interesting look at what goes into making a docudrama and why certain choices were made. Obviously, the order of the series is a major outrage to many historians. Their excuse about the need to draw in an audience with the first episode actually seems dismally valid. Poor Tiberius Gracchus just isn't going to get the same following as the emperor who fiddled while Rome burned.

I can't really speak on other choices, since I haven't seen the series, but it seems like the series has its ups and downs. I do now know there's a lovely Roman funeral, at least!

I think, however, the reason I'm generally tempted to judge this more harshly than HBO's Rome is simply because this is a series claiming to be history more so than entertainment. The entertainment focus gave HBO's Rome more leeway, and it still managed to impress many of us with the details they decided to include anyway (that were, honestly, above and beyond what most other Rome entertainment shows tend to include).

But I also agree with the panelists here that there is, to some extent, a need to captivate an audience that might not otherwise watch. It's easy to say, "Well, the actual history is riveting enough, if portrayed well!" True, but you also need a line that'll bring in the general audience in the first place. And with a little bit of luck (and good storytelling), the rest will suck 'em in for good!

I also have to agree that this is, hopefully, not the be-all-end-all and is just a starting point for further research and discussion. But maybe that's hoping for too much.

There was also very interesting discussion on the choices of episodes, which I imagine can't have been an easy process. I am, however, a little bummed that Zenobia didn't make the cut. If they wanted more women, she would have been ideal. And I'm probably biased, but I think she was significant enough to have made the cut as well--if only to show the flavour and the reach of Roman society that a woman like Zenobia could have come so close. At any rate, she is an ideal candidate for dramatization.

Anyway, it was a very interesting and informative session. I don't know that I'll necessarily be easier on adaptations now (I think I'm already pretty "easy" compared to many others!), but I do believe I'll be approaching them with more understanding for why choices are made.

Still, I'd like to see really historically accurate dramatizations done with great writing, big budget, and great actors solely with historians in mind for an audience. Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

-Ancient Rome DVD (available only in the UK at the moment)
-Simon Baker's book (Amazon UK)

For the U.S.:

Robert Fagles' Aeneid

2006-11-06T15:06:00.000-05:00

I got this very lovely article from a very lovely friend: Beloved Greek translator tries Latin epic

It's an interview with Fagles on his translation of the Aeneid, and it has a wonderful bit specifically on translating arma virumque cano. I think it's a must read for any student pondering translation choices.

Reason #3464556728992 to learn Latin

2006-11-05T15:12:00.000-05:00

This was Wednesday's Get Fuzzy, but I kept forgetting to post it. Lucky me! Because I don't have much to say today.

Reason #45748395967905789653 to learn Greek is so that you don't make movies of Elektra (the comic book character) with inappropriately used Greek letters. Ow. Painful.

And learn it early, because learning it later only means you get stuck playing catch up. Honestly, if you'd told me just two or three years ago that I'd be studying Greek tragedies in Greek in grad school right now, I would have laughed at you. I'm tempted to laugh now.

300 and Troy the Musical (again)

2006-11-04T13:26:00.000-05:00

So apparently, Gerard Butler is going to be in the movie 300 as Leonidas. The official website, including pictures and a production blog, can be found here. Although, I have to wonder that the cast list is still "coming soon" on the official website when IMDB already has it.

I'm not sure what to make of Gerard Butler as Leonidas. Last thing I saw him in was The Phantom of the Opera. That displeased me for reasons that are irrelevant to this blog. But since then, he's also been Beowulf (I know, why haven't I seen that yet?) Praefect Cassius Chaerea (and hey, Courtney Love as Caligula . . . I don't make this stuff up!).

Anyway, another tidbit I forgot to mention yesterday in my haste. Troy the Musical will also feature Nigel Spivey as Helenos. Now you have to be there, don't you?

Troy the Musical

2006-11-03T15:44:00.000-05:00

No, it's not the Australian musical of the Trojan War, Paris, but Cambridge has its very own Troy the Musical which will be showing Nov 30-Dec 1. Proceeds go to Hand in Hand.

For more information, visit the website!

See? I told you it would be exciting! And now I must scurry off, because I'm on borrowed internet time . . .

A few things I've been meaning to post

2006-11-02T09:54:00.000-05:00

These are a few days old, just because I keep getting too busy to post what I want to post! And it doesn't help now that my internet is dead in my room. But I am making efforts to keep up with NaBloPoMo despite that obstacle.

Firstly, a 'Tower of Babel' translator has been made, basically allowing a person to mouth words in their own language and have them come out in another language. Considering how imperfect our current translating technology is (and I mean typed words), I'm skeptical about this. At any rate, it's certainly no real replacement for truly understanding another language. That said, did anyone else think of Star Trek's Universal Translator when they say this??? Or am I the only crazy one?? Because it's really the same thing. And I'd be willing to bet these guys were inspired by the UT (indirectly or otherwise).

Also, for the Latinists out there, here's Free Latin, a lovely resource of Latin games, software, and other aids for Latin teachers in particular.

And here's an article on on a newly discovered Aristotle bust that is being called the "best-preserved likeness ever found." I wonder about that. For all we know, all this arist got right was the hooked nose. I know, I'm far too skeptical about random things.

Lastly (and I'll be SHOCKED if you haven't read about this one yet, but just in case), the brothel at Pompeii has reopened! I was stupid and somehow "forgot" to take a peek last time I was there. Don't ask me why. But I guess I made up for it by actually getting to see the wonderful Pan & Goat statue. It's seriously one of my favourite statues ever. I have strange tastes. But it's so delightfully crafted! The expression on the goat's face is priceless.

Anyway, stay tuned for an exciting update tomorrow!

NaBloPoMo! And more.

2006-11-01T05:24:00.000-05:00

Since I can't afford to do NaNoWriMo, I've decided to do NaBloPoMo. This means, for an entire month, you lucky readers will (probably) actually get daily updates from me!

There may be a kink in my evil plan come mid-month, because I'm not sure what kind of internet access I'll have during my short trip to London. But we shall see. I wonder if it counts if you write it on a certain day but don't get it online until the next day. hm.

Anyhow, my week of inactivity on the blog made me think that this might actually be a good idea. I feel remiss in my blogging duties. Yes, I realize how silly that thought sounds when one has papers to write and such, but blogging here is actually a nice way for me keep thinking and writing about Classics without getting too bogged down in my current research. It's a good but productive way to take a break.

And now for a fun across-the-pond story. So we finally got to noun declension in German today, and I'm looking at the list thinking that something just feels a little off. Then, I suddenly realize, oh, right, because accusatives butt in front of genitives on this side of the pond! I had heard stories of this but had sort of forgotten, considering I'm past stage that in both Latin and Greek. I'm quite glad, though, that I've done two languages past that stage already, otherwise I'd be liable to get confused. But now I'm at the point where I think less of lists and more of function, even in languages I'm just starting to learn. Thankfully!

Speaking of that, here's Monday's Get Fuzzy comic that made me laugh in about ten ways.

Lastly, over at In the Middle, Eileen Joy has posted about her new book and its modern political intersection. There is, of course, debate over whether or not historians should be involved in the modern world. But I have to wonder why we're studying history if not to learn from the past and, when it's suitable, to apply this knowledge to the present. That is, after all, what makes us living, conscious creatures. As they say--what have the Romans done for us? But also--how can we take that and improve? (I know, not as catchy. :-P)

Latin lives! In Finland, anyway!

2006-10-24T16:21:00.000-04:00

Glaukôpis has been feeling a bit under the weather today, but it is passing. And now it's back to work (after a quick update).

Also, please congratulate Glaukôpis, because she has managed not to forget her keys for four days in a row. If you had seen Glaukôpis last week, you would understand why this is an accomplishment (and she's quickly knocking on wood after making this statement too).

But anyway, on to the Finns. Apparently, Finland is filled with wonderfully crazy people who do things like sing Elvis songs in Latin. Glaukôpis doesn't get it. How come the botanists (Glaukôpis kids you not--she once saw a Latin for botanists book at her old job and wanted to take it home with her!) and the Finns have turned Latin into a lingua franca of sorts, but the Classicists haven't? Not that Glaukôpis, of all people, should really be encouraging this, but that's another story. Although, she has been known to write Ecce Romani fanfiction in Latin. But that will never see the light of day. She suspects, however, that Ecce Romani's popularity is more widespread than one would think, because she has had several google searches for Ecce Romani fanfiction. Glaukôpis' friends think she's insane, but at least she's NOT ALONE.

Actually, there have also been several attempts by smaller groups to read and speak Latin regularly, but it's not as focused and widespread an effort in Classics as it seems to be in Finland and botany.

And ecce! Finland's Latin news!

Oh, for the record, Glaukôpis loves Finns. She means "crazy" only in the best ways, as she considers herself a "crazy Classicist." She also recomments that you all read the Kalevala if you have not yet--particularly if you're interested in world mythology. And now Glaukôpis wonders if it's been translated into Latin yet . . .

Various and sundry . . .

2006-10-23T15:32:00.000-04:00

It's been a busy weekend, trying to sift through everything I've read and decide exactly what it is I'm going to write about while my brain goes off in 10,000,000 different directions. I think I've got it now.

But now for a short break from that, I've come across quite a few interesting articles of note today.

From the Classics-L list:
-The Derveni papyrus published at last! Wonderful news!
-Another Delphic Delirium theory. I'm glad they're taking in to account geological changes, but my earlier questions have yet to be addressed. What would be really interesting to know is the long-term effects of exposure to this gas they're claiming, particularly in comparison with the short-term exposure of the visitors to the Oracle.

Over at Archaeoastronomy, we also have an article on finding and protecting Egyptian tombs using fracture traces.

Mary Beard gets to glimps the Sevso treasure (which makes me rather envious!). I'll be honest; I'm a sucker for shiny things.

And lastly, for those of you in the D.C. area, the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is doing an exhibit on Bible evolution. I should be back home in time to see this! Loverly.

And that is all. I had a few thoughts for you earlier in the day, but they seem to have taken flight. Perhaps another time!

Father Foster!

2006-10-18T19:11:00.000-04:00

In case anyone's missed it, our beloved Father Foster has actually been fired--FIRED!--but is starting a new Latin program in Rome (thanfully). There's been wonderful coverage on ORBIS CATHOLICVS.

But still, who would EVER want to fire Father Foster?! That just seems absurd!

I'm glad he's starting a new program, though. If he hadn't, I'm sure lots of people would be clamouring to hire him anyway!

CFP and Research Rambling

2006-10-16T15:15:00.000-04:00

UNC-Duke Graduate Colloquium in Classics, if anyone's interested.

My own area of research is completely unrelated at the moment. I'm trying to save Euripides' Orestes from hated bastard-child obscurity where others have failed. Many of my ideas have been put forth already with seemingly little success (I say that because most people still seem to think this play is a hated bastard-child--you should see the looks I get!), but I'm going to find my angle if it KILLS me.

Euripides was not stupid. And he knew what he was doing with this play.

Too bad I can't take on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus too.

Odysseus Unwound!

2006-10-15T13:02:00.000-04:00

No, that is not a typo. No, this post is not on the Ithaca search (sorry! But there's nothing new so far as I can tell! If anybody would like to tell me otherwise, pleae do!).

So anyway, since I've taken up knitting myself (albeit at a snail's pace, considering I'm here to do research, not knit), this rather amuses me: Odysseus Unwound.

Unfortunately, it got a less than favourable review. As posted to Classics-L:

Greek Myth, Scottish Knitting Are Entwined in Quirky New Opera

By Warwick Thompson

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- I had never guessed that Greek myth and
Scottish knitting had anything in common. That was until I saw Julian
Grant's new ``Odysseus Unwound.'' Now, I know it for sure.

Staged in an abandoned theater in north London by the quirky company
Tete-a-Tete, the opera presents several scenes in the life of Homer's
great hero Odysseus, sung by Daniel Broad. We see him brutally
taunting the captive Trojan queen Hecuba, defeating the monster
Polyphemus with a trick, and returning home to find his wife Penelope
at her knitting, surrounded by suitors.

Along with the singers, the cast also involves five motherly Scottish
knitters who sit clicking away at the side of the stage and who
occasionally act as extras.

Their involvement came about after the director Bill Bankes- Jones
made a chance visit to the Shetland Isles, and found plenty of
parallels with the opera's subject matter. Like Penelope, the
Shetlanders are famous for their spinning, weaving and knitting, and
like Odysseus they know a thing or two about hopping between islands
on small boats.

It was hoped that their experiences might resonate with the story
during the opera's gestation. Since Hattie Naylor's libretto avoids
any references to the Greek gods, it was also thought that the
knitters might fill a gap by representing the Fates who spin and ravel
the threads of Odysseus's life.

A cute idea, though ultimately not a fruitful one. A piece that avoids
divine references might have been better served on its own terms,
rather than padded with mystical symbolism.

Uneasy Energy

The matronly knitters, though charming in what they do, are also not
natural stage creatures. When required to be extras -- to coil up
ropes, move chairs, or to pretend to be sailors -- their awkwardness
creates an uneasy energy that is often distracting.

Naylor's ramshackle libretto only adds to the difficulties. She
doesn't solve the problems of presenting a picaresque story, and the
result is a series of rather random episodes that lacks structure and
direction. She also commits the cardinal operatic sin of creating a
second half that is almost double the length of the first. It almost
grinds to a halt.

There's still some fun to be had. Julian Grant's music is attractive,
and his mix of Stravinskian orchestral colors with mellifluous
attic-style modal melodies works beautifully. Bankes- Jones's
inventive, simple production uses just a few chairs and pieces of rope
to create the various locations.

The singing is very good, with Louise Mott (Penelope) and Sadhbh
Dennedy (Nausicaa) outstanding in their roles. Tim Murray conducts the
CHROMA ensemble with a lively sense of pace and rhythm.

All this, and you get to see the crumbling, atmospheric gem that is
the 1870s Alexandra Palace Theatre. If Tete-a-Tete could make some
cuts and rethink the knitters, it might be a piece worth revisiting.

``Odysseus Unwound'' is in repertoire until Oct. 16 and then on tour.
Tel. (44) (1473) 320407 or go to
http://www.tete-a-tete.org.uk/unwound/

(Warwick Thompson is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions
expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on this story: Warwick Thompson at WarwickTho [at] aol [dot] com .
Last Updated: October 13, 2006 01:15 EDT

Indiana Jones! And more on Ithaca!

2006-10-12T20:54:00.000-04:00

Another quick post before bed. (By the way, when they do "functions" here, they really do functions. And I just learned I'm at the coolest college ever, because, seriously, we have RICHARD III. Yes, be jealous.)

Many of you may have seen this on RogueClassicism already, but a lovely article on the aforementioned Ithaca theory has been posted. From what I hear today, the first hole has actually been drilled, and members of the team are sworn to secrecy about the results! But I would keep checking Odysseus Unbound for results (the site seems to be working just fine right now).

And a little more "fun": Indiana Jones' tenure rejection letter. Yeah. Too damn funny. Enjoy!

Delphic Delirium

2006-10-10T21:38:00.000-04:00

I'll make this quick, because I should be heading off to sleep. But Aine Bina sent me this loverly link: Delphic Oracle Inspired by Low-Oxygen Delirium

Interesting idea. What I don't get about most of these theories, though, is how they can explain others not getting affected by whatever. Theoretically, people are close enough to the Pythia that the interpreting priests or the visitors or whoever's around would be affected too.

Hell, maybe the Pythia was just really damn good at making herself go into a trance (some sort of meditation?) or even just acting (but, y'know, god-inspired acting).

Also, does anyone know what's up with most of Perseus' sites being down? I was only able to access the German mirror site for any length of time tonight! And that was pretty slow! Or maybe I should have kept my "secret" about use of the German mirror site, lest the traffic grow worse. ;-)

Edited to add: Perseus seems to be working well this morning, so I guess it was a temporary fluke. I worry about the well-being of Perseus too much!

Odysseus Unbound

2006-10-07T14:49:00.000-04:00

Dear readers, I am come again!

Honestly, I've been vaguely skimming Classics blogs, but I've just been so busy since arriving in England that I couldn't bring myself to post! But it's been wonderful here, so I'm certainly not complaining.

Anyway, I attended a lecture today with James Diggle and Robert Bittlestone on their book Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca:

That's a really good deal compared to the SALE price of £20 at the lecture today, to be honest (conversion is approximately double to US$). But then, Amazon's copies aren't autographed.

They also have a website at www.odysseus-unbound.org, but I've been having problems with it. Hope you all don't.

Anyway, it's a fascinating theory, and I have to admit I'm a bit surprised that with our modern geological understanding somebody didn't think to look back at Cephalonia sooner! But I'm also glad they are able to put this much effort into it now and are so close to finding the answers that may prove (or disprove, I suppose) their theory. If the book is anything like the lecture (I haven't read it yet--it's huge!), then I'm sure it will be an enjoyable and fascinating read. And the current updates are on their website (assuming you don't have any problems with it).

'Tis a silly question . . .

2006-09-24T12:35:00.000-04:00

This being my last post from this side of the pond, I thought I'd pose a question to you, dear readers, for discussion.

Monty Python. Fully half of my Classics profs have at some point gone off into a MP tangent that related to and perhaps assisted in illustrating part of the lesson. My medieval mythology prof also did this (and if you knew her, despite the fact that it was an Arthurian legends class, you'd be a bit shocked at how long she re-enacted a MP scene also), as well as others I'm probably forgetting at the moment. Homo Edax and In the Middle both recently included MP in their blog posts.

Thus, my question: is it actually a requirement that Classics profs and other profs in related fields (e.g. mythology, medieval studies) learn/memorize Monty Python and incorporate it in their lessons (be they lectures or blog posts!)? If you're a student, have you had similar experiences? If you're a teacher/prof, do you use MP as well?

I'm assuming the answer is "yes," because who doesn't love MP? But feel free to prove me wrong. ;-)

My friend, incidently, got me some HOLY GRAIL the other day. [chorus of "ahhhhhh!"] In fact, she presented it to me directly after we watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Yes, be jealous!

Edited to add: Oh, and something more relevant/useful: free Latin readers with animal movements and sounds. Adorable!! I just got that from the Latinteach list.

Ahoy, ye maties!

2006-09-19T05:07:00.000-04:00

Arr! It be Talk Like a Pirate Day, maties! Aye, and a little parrot told me that the University of Maryland's Latin Day be comin' up soon--November 14th! There be an October 25th registration deadline, though. Arr!

Arrrrr, and the best part be the Latin Day t-shirts that say: "Timete Testudinem" (Fear the Turtle!)

Though that slogan be quite lame! Turtles be not fearsome creatures! Aye! Silly people, them land-lubbin' slogan-makers! But, of course, it all sounds better in Latin! Aye! Though I'll tell y'all good piratey blog-readers a little secret! "Timete testudinem" was to end last year's Latin Day--until they ran out of time! Arrr.

And now, perhaps, our fearsome Greek pirate cap'n Homo Edax will entertain us further with some Greek Piratese!

I'm alive! Sorta!

2006-09-17T22:10:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't noticed, updates have been spotty and will probably continue to be until I settle down in England. Right now, I'm focusing on all the things I still have to do in my last week in the U.S. And it's a lot. Although, I did at least get to enjoy one more Classics dept function at my undergrad university this week. It was quite by accident but, as always, filled with fun and amusement. (Although, there were no brownie stand-offs this year. Certain people must have learned not to get in between me and the brownies. :-D)

Anyway, I've been meaning to thank Tropaion for the mention and to add a permanent link there in this blog. Hopefully, the permanent link will happen soon.

Also, hearing about a replica of the Argo being made to sail Jason's journey (from the Classics-L list), I really do have to wonder. I've always thought that if more people really knew about Jason & Medea, there would be fewer Jasons in the world. But still, people wish to make his journey, even if he was a pansy hero who needed Medea to save him and who then proceeded to abandon her. Bitter? Me? Naw. ;-)

Beam me up, Scotty!

2006-09-12T05:56:00.000-04:00

There were other things I'd intended to post, but seeing as it's nearly 6AM and I'm still up (I was studying Greek, honest!), I figure I'll just stick with this.

It looks like Cambridge Schools Classics Project will be beaming up Latin to inquiring minds who wouldn't otherwise have a Latin teacher. That's kinda cool, and yet, real in-the-classroom teachers are cooler.

I like that somebody's trying, though. And I like that the demand is actually higher than the supply of Latin teachers (or so it would seem? Or maybe it's just that Latin teachers aren't affordable. hm). Anyway, Latin is being ~~forced down the throats of poor, unsuspecting young students~~ spread far and wide, and that makes me happy.

You see, if I ever have a child I shall ~~brainwash~~ corrupt it with Latin at an early age. Thus, hopefully, it will be saved the pain of figuring it out at a later age (because any child of mine would just naturally regret not learning Latin earlier :-P). Of course, it would probably cringe at horrible grammar mistakes at an even earlier age and be even more of a pain in the ass than its mother. In short, it might not be saved any pain at all. hm. Oh well!

The Parthenon, Mary Beard, and visa trouble, oh my!

2006-09-08T16:12:00.000-04:00

If you haven't already read about it, here's an article on a piece of the Parthenon being returned. I've read about it in a couple places, but thanks to Aine Bina for that link.

Also, Mary Beard is writing about Et Tu, Brute? as it's being applied to modern politics. She also mentioned a couple posts ago that she will be in a BBC drama-doc on ancient Rome. I think it promises to be interesting!

Lastly, on the personal grad school side of things, just when I thought all I had left to do was study more Greek and pack, I got an interesting call from someone in another state. She tells me the British Consulate sent her my stuff. It's as if the universe wants to constantly keep me on my toes. Eheu. But I am very grateful to this person for having the honesty and kindness to track me down to let me know and for sending it back to me.

More on Canongate's The Myths Series

2006-09-05T01:53:00.000-04:00

Realizing one only has 20 days left in the country is somewhat disturbing. Over a third of those days are going to be at work. The rest of the time is going to be spent hitting Greek harder (hopefully) and trying to actually get ready for this move. The prep and the work are cutting into my Greek time a lot more than I was expecting. This is seriously unfortunate.

On the bright side, I discovered another of the books in The Myths Series today. I guess it was out earlier, but I missed that too. It's David Grossman's Lion's Honey (Amazon.com link at the bottom of the post, along with the others).

I just wish they'd have published a better list of books for the series at some point, so I don't have to actually go to the mythology section of the bookstore to go hunting for books about the same size and shape as the previous ones in order to figure out if they're really part of the series! It seems to me better promotion could have been done with this series. Anyway, these are the titles I've discovered so far (verified by this list on Canongate). The links lead to my reviews:

-Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth
-Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad
-Jeanette Winterson's Weight
-Victor Pelevin's The Helmet of Horror
-David Grossman's Lion's Honey
-Alexander McCall Smith's Dream Angus (coming out later this month)

And I think Dream Angus is coming out after I leave the country! This could be vexing. I hope the UK covers match the US covers. Eheu!

There is also a boxset (which only includes A Short History of Myth, The Penelopiad, Weight, and Dream Angus) that comes with an essay by Philip Pullman called "A Word or Two About Myths." I'm not sure this is actually available separately!)

Playing catch-up

2006-09-04T13:18:00.000-04:00

My apologies, I've been a bit busy the last few days. Anyway, these are just a few updates I've been meaning to do.

I got this one from the Classics-L list. Apparently Harvard has a service for searching a number of language dictionaries, including Latin, Greek, and Sumerian. It can be found here: Pollux: Archimedes Project Dictionary Access.

Also, a few days ago, there was a bit on a very exciting Etruscan sanctuary discovery:
-Italian (if you can read it)
-English (not as detailed as the Italian, from what I gather)

The last one is just hilarious: Towards Proto-Cow

Lastly, I've changed the graphic, yet again, but if you enjoy staring at shiny moving Medea, you can still stare at her here for the time being.

A little quiz fun

2006-09-01T00:11:00.000-04:00

Got this one from a friend, and while I usually don't post quizzes (I have before, but only rarely), this one was actually really good. Or maybe I just like it because it's a pretty good mix of Classical mythology and MBTI. Although I'm not sure I'd classify Thomas Jefferson as an INTP. I'd also like to see how they pair up the rest of the types with mythological figures!

It would also sorta make more sense if Socrates were the one annoying people in the questions rather than Plato. Oh well.

The Oracle

0% Extroversion, 100% Intuition, 27% Emotiveness, 90% Perceptiveness

Heuristic, detached, and analytical to a fualt, you are most like The Oracle. You are able to tackle any subject with a fine toothed comb, and you possess an ability to pinpoint nuances and shades of meaning that other people do not have and cannot understand. Accomplishment and realization of ideas are, for you, secondary to the rigorous exploration of ideas and questions -- you are, first and foremost, a theorist. You hate authority, convention, tradition, and under no circumstances do you accept a leadership role (although, you will gladly advise leadership when they're going astray, whether they want you to or not). Abstraction and generalities are your interests, details and particulars are usually inconsequential and uninteresting. You excel at language, mathematics and philosophy.

You are typically easy-going and non-confrontational until someone violates one of the very few principles that you deem sacred, at which point you can fly into a rage. Although you possess a much greater understanding of process and systems than the people around you, you are always conscious of the possibility that you've missed something or made a mistake. You don't tend to become attached to particular theories, and will immediately discard mistaken notions once they're revealed to be incorrect (but you don't tolerate iconoclasts who try to discredit validated theories through the use of fallacies and bad data). Despite being outwardly humble, you probably think of yourself as being smarter than most other people. That's because you are. In fact, in your dealings with people your understanding of their motives is so expansive that you know what they're going to say before they say it, and in world affairs, you usually know what is going to take place before it actually does. This ability would make you unbeatable in debates if only you were a little less pensive about your own conclusions, and a little more outgoing.

Famous people like you: Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, John McWhorter, Ramanujan, Marie Curie, Kurt Godel

Stay clear of: Apollo, Icarus, Hermes, Aphrodite

Seek out: Atlas, Prometheus, Daedalus

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 0% on Extroversion
You scored higher than 90% on Intuition
You scored higher than 4% on Emotiveness
You scored higher than 79% on Perceptiveness

Link: The Greek Mythology Personality Test written by Aleph_Nine on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

On Books

2006-08-31T15:18:00.000-04:00

The problem with moving over the pond for approximately nine months of study is picking and choosing which books to bring. Obviously, I can't bring them all in my luggage, so I'm mailing some to myself now. But even with 4-6 week delivery, it costs about $45 to send 15 lbs worth of books. That's not really very many books, mind you.

Moreover, I'm stuck deciding what I'll really need while I'm over there but can do without for about a month while I'm continuing my reviewing here. Of course, I'll have access to one of the best libraries in the world (which is an infinitely cheering thought!), but I'm the kind of person who sits in her room at 2AM and is suddenly struck with odd questions to which she MUST have the answer ASAP. For instance, just the other night, I suddenly needed to know the history of my undergrad university's libraries (particularly the main one). The question plagued me! I searched all over their website to no avail. At long last, I gave in and checked wikipedia (I know, the horror! But I just wanted to satisfy my own curiosity). That only told me the person for whom the main library was named. Much unsatisfied with this, I finally submitted my burning question to the librarians. They were very helpful and responded much more quickly than I would have expected for such a silly question. But of course, they weren't going to respond to me at 2AM.

Um, where was I? Oh yes. Working at a bookstore, I've been fortunate enough to have been able to started my own small collection of reference books. Sadly, most of them will not be traveling with me. Parting is such sweet sorrow!

On the bright side, though, Google Book Search now has a bunch of public domain books as pdf files, and there's always Project Gutenberg. But it's not really the same as holding a book, is it?

Since everyone else is mentioning it . . .

2006-08-28T12:23:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder that HBO's Rome is out on DVD now.

That really is the best price I've seen for it new, at least from all the likely places around here.

Also thinking about changing the graphic again (NOT because of the previous commenter, but because the moving is starting to distract me too). Any thoughts?

How the ancient and modern, yet again, collide

2006-08-26T03:12:00.000-04:00

It looks like David Meadows is back at rogueclassicism!! I'm sure we're all thrilled and relieved.

Anyway, this just amuses me: Bronze age canoe stops pipeline. I love it when ancient stuff forces itself upon us when and where we're least expecting it in our little bubbles of modernity.

Also, did anyone else see The Zeitgeist Checklist earlier this month (also here with little pictures ? In particular:

THE PASSION OF THE SCHNOOK

Mel-tdown. Drunken-driver Mel Gibson offers provocative theory that "the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." A brief furor erupts when it is revealed that police cleaned up the arresting officer's report, particularly the part where Gibson elaborated on Jewish aggression in the Punic Wars, the War of Jenkins' Ear and the defeat of the Persians at Thermopylae, which Gibson claimed "involved a couple of guys named Goldfarb." Still, Gibson insists he is not an anti-Semite, blaming his tirade on his struggles with alcoholism and depression, and also on his hatred of Jews.

I'd comment, but what could I possibly say?

Lastly, I had a little fun with Photoshop Elements today and created a new sidebar picture for the blog. Hope it amuses all of you as much as it amuses me.

Science and Technology! ::gasp!::

2006-08-24T19:31:00.000-04:00

I guess you have to be living in a cave not to have heard about Pluto by now, but just in case, I really enjoyed this post, Pluto is Promoted (rather than emphasis on it being demoted), which I found via Archaeoastronomy.

There's also a VERY amusing video on the ABC News website.

Also, a completely unrelated PSA for Mac users (iBook G4 and PowerBook G4): Apple has a battery recall, lest your computer turns into this:

I think that's actually a Dell, because they used it in the article about the Dell Laptop fire also.

Actually, the charred iBook I saw on TV looked a lot cooler. Oh well. Can't have everything.

And if you haven't seen it yet, scroll down to the previous post to see my terrible sense of humour. :-D

Books! And bad humour!

2006-08-24T17:52:00.000-04:00

Well, in case you wanted to make a few last minute purchases of books to read before the summer ends, Borders apparently has coupons out for the weekend.

For those of you in the U.S. - 10% off your entire purchase, plus Borders will donate 10% of your purchase to First Book, "a national nonprofit organization working with local groups to provide new books for children in need."

For those of you in the U.K. - £5 off when you spend £20 or more (yes, I'm dork enough to be on the UK Borders mailing list too. :-P)

And if you don't feel like leaving your home, there's always good ol' Amazon.com and its usual discount prices.

And a bit of honesty about the links if you choose to buy from any of them:

-U.S. Borders coupon gives money to kids as well as Borders
-U.K. Borders coupon gives money only to Borders
-Amazon.com link gives money to me and to Amazon

And on a personal note: I'm so excited! I just figured out (with some help from a friend) how to switch my MacBook from U.S. keyboard settings to U.K and Greek also! Yay! That's just hot.

And lastly, I was having a little (REALLY BAD) archaeological humour the other day and created this for your viewing pleasure:

Please don't shoot me or send me hate mail for my horrible sense of humour. heh.

On Penelope (not Cruz, Homer!)

2006-08-23T02:42:00.000-04:00

Don't you hate it when you're about to go to bed and are then struck with the powerful urge to write about something? Well, I do.

Anyway, I was just about to crawl into bed when I looked at my Waterhouse calendar and saw this picture of "Penelope and the Suitors" for August. Now, Waterhouse is possibly my favourite painter ever, so you really should all see the picture:

So yes, Penelope. Penelope always interested me because she is simultaneously a case that can be used with feminism and against it. Thus she is alternately hated and--actually, I think I've seen more feminists dislike her. I mean, from a strictly black and white standpoint, she does sit at home like a good little Greek woman defending her man while he's off sleeping with goddesses and witches and such. One of the few women held up as a good model for women in Greek mythology, she is now despised by a lot of people who think she was stupid to wait around for the likes of player Odysseus.

But I think there's still a flip side to this. I, at any rate, do tend to admire Odysseus at times (and despite his sleazy asshole-ishness) for his wily use of his brain to get out of situations, and Penelope shows these same qualities (which is actually what makes them such a good couple). And in some ways, Penelope is even more adept at this than Odysseus. She somehow keeps a houseful of greedy and hormonal suitors in line for twenty years. And despite the misguided loyalty, I do have to admire her for having the capacity to be so loyal. Then again, with the pack of suitors she had, why on Zeus' zany earth would she want one of them? Either way, I have to give the girl credit for having a little self respect. So, Odysseus was a wanderer--doesn't really mean Penelope had to stoop to his level. I wouldn't have blamed her if she had, but I do have to admire her strength. It's not the kind of strength Medea had (everything comes back to Medea with me :-D), but it's just as good, in my opinion. And while Odysseus himself may not mesh well with feminism, I'm not sure that Penelope and her actions shouldn't. She was clearly a woman capable of taking care of herself. And in her situation, it really just might have been her own self-respect that kept her away from those suitors, not simply that she was being a good, obedient little Greek wife. She did, after all, show a little more defiance than one would expect to be desirable in a typical meek housewife.

And I do believe that's part of the problem I had with Atwood's Penelopiad. I really don't think it's necessary for Penelope to be so much on the defensive for her actions.

Scotland and weather and archaeology, oh my!

2006-08-22T07:54:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I've been awake all night from general annoying summer insomnia, which led to reading Plato, but this is just bloody COOL and must be shared pronto!

Heatwave reveals Scotland's past (clicky for spiffy pictures!)

Burnfoot, near Quothquan in South Lanarkshire

In pictures: See some of the sites revealed by the hot weather
A heatwave has revealed fleeting traces of early settlements to historians taking a bird's eye view of Scotland.

The conditions this summer have proved ideal for aerial archaeologists who document the buried sites, which appear in ripening crops or scorched grass.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland said it was one of the best in its 30 years.

Discoveries have included various prehistoric settlements and much more detail at two major Roman forts.

Dave Cowley, the aerial survey manager at the RCAHMS, said the findings, across the Scottish lowlands, were significant and helped build a picture of where people had lived.

"We've been finding archaeological sites that haven't been productive in the past and that's because of the extreme conditions," he said.

Crops that lie directly above buried features ripen at a different rate from the rest of the field when it is dry, producing "crop marks".

Similar markings also form in grass as it parches in the sun.

Mr Cowley said: "Bits of the Borders, some of the Cheviot foothills, parts of Fife and the Moray Plain have produced previously unknown sites.

"Town Yetholm through to Morebattle have been producing material, which is parched out in grass.

"We have seen various types of prehistoric settlements usually as circular or rectangular enclosures and burial sites."

According to Mr Cowley, the aerial archaeologists have also been able to see patterns across the whole expanse of the Roman forts at Newstead in the Borders and Carpow in Fife.

This has helped to build on the knowledge gained from small, detailed excavations.

"The sites that have been absolutely spectacular visually are two of our Roman forts," he said.

"Newstead Roman Fort has shown better this year than it's shown since the 1940s.

"The line of the fort wall, the ditches and even details like the towers on either side of one of the gateways can be seen.

"You can also see the arrangement of all the internal roads inside the fort, the possible positions of bread ovens and other internal features.

"And at Carpow you're seeing raised pits and internal features."

The RCAHMS aerial survey has undertaken about 1,000 flights, using a four-seater Cessna aircraft from its base in Edinburgh, and it has produced more than 100,000 images of the country since 1976.

The pictures have significantly improved the historical information about areas where thousands of years of agriculture have levelled and hidden the remains of earlier settlements.

The information can also prove crucial to planners when considering sites for new developments such as housing or major pipe routes.

World's Oldest Computer (again!)

2006-08-22T01:59:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty sure this is the same one that was in the news earlier, but that link expired. So I'm going to copy the text of this one.

Revealed: world's oldest computer

Helena Smith
Sunday August 20, 2006
The Observer

It looks like a heap of rubbish, feels like flaky pastry and has been linked to aliens. For decades, scientists have puzzled over the complex collection of cogs, wheels and dials seen as the most sophisticated object from antiquity, writes Helena Smith. But 102 years after the discovery of the calcium-encrusted bronze mechanism on the ocean floor, hidden inscriptions show that it is the world's oldest computer, used to map the motions of the sun, moon and planets.

'We're very close to unlocking the secrets,' says Xenophon Moussas,an astrophysicist with a Anglo-Greek team researching the device. 'It's like a puzzle concerning astronomical and mathematical knowledge.'

Known as the Antikythera mechanism and made before the birth of Christ, the instrument was found by sponge divers amid the wreckage of a cargo ship that sunk off the tiny island of Antikythera in 80BC. To date, no other appears to have survived.

'Bronze objects like these would have been recycled, but being in deep water it was out of reach of the scrap-man and we had the luck to discover it,' said Michael Wright, a former curator at London's Science Museum. He said the apparatus was the best proof yet of how technologically advanced the ancients were. 'The skill with which it was made shows a level of instrument-making not surpassed until the Renaissance. It really is the first hard evidence of their interest in mechanical gadgets, ability to make them and the preparedness of somebody to pay for them.'

For years scholars had surmised that the object was an astronomical showpiece, navigational instrument or rich man's toy. The Roman Cicero described the device as being for 'after-dinner entertainment'.

But many experts say it could change how the history of science is written. 'In many ways, it was the first analogue computer,' said Professor Theodosios Tassios of the National Technical University of Athens. 'It will change the way we look at the ancients' technological achievements.'

More on corpses

2006-08-21T13:37:00.000-04:00

Meant to post this one earlier, but it must have slipped my mind. Anyway, got this from Classics-L again: Volunteers dig up 5th century corpse.

Wouldn't you love to be one of those people digging up dead people??

On Homer

2006-08-19T23:34:00.000-04:00

So, I've had a request of sorts to talk about Homer. Now, it's been a long time since I've read the Odyssey, and the last time I read the Iliad, I was half-listening to it on CD. So you'll have to bear with me here.

Firstly, I have to insert a complaint. Achilles. Most people I know who have actually read the Iliad do not like this particular fellow. He's obnoxious and vindictive and, frankly, he's a whiner. (I despise whiners. This is why I can't stand Frankenstein. And I do mean Mary Shelley's book.) However, lately, I've found a string of teenage or twenty-something girls who are all OMG!ACHILLES!LURRRRVE!!!1one!!11!!! (excuse my lapse into teenybopper language, but it is my attempt to fully convey the exact reaction of these people). This troubles me, because all of them are under this impression solely because of Brad Pitt. Seriously, I remember a class last year where we were all about to mutually dislike Achilles so our professor could make a dig at him, but this ONE girl was all, "But I lurrrrve Achilles!!!one!11!!!" And then our professor declined to make the joke. This vexed me somewhat, because he had no compunctions earlier about dissing Lady Macbeth. (Now, to be fair, this was actually one of my favourite professors, so I'm not really attempting to lay any blame on him.) But, you know, there's always at least one, and they're everywhere and ruin it for the rest of us. Now, if this girl had actually read the Iliad and discussed reasons for liking him (such as his role as a Greek hero), rather than simply lurving Brad Pitt, I would not be so vexed. In fact, I would have welcomed the discussion. Sadly, it matters much more these days who plays the character on the Big Screen than the character himself. Sad, isn't it?

Then again, Sean Bean in that movie really was a good casting choice for sleazy, suave, snarky, wiley Odysseus. I'd love to see him in a movie version of the Odyssey, preferably done by somebody who's actually read it and bothered to do a little research. I'm not sure who should play Penelope, though. Preferably somebody who can show her strength and cunning as a woman, despite the fact that she's ultimately playing into the patriarchy and waiting for somebody as sleazy as Odysseus (not that I don't admire him for his cunning, but he's not my favourite guy in the ancient world either.)

Hm, well, I considered talking about the role of goddesses in the Iliad, but I'm not sure there's anything I can say that isn't immediately obvious to anyone who's actually read it. I mean, I could blah blah blah about how they have much more power--even in relation to male gods--than traditionally assigned to mortal women, blah blah, and they actually have power in spheres traditionally associated with men, blah blah, but they are still under Zeus' rule, even if they are potentially able to overthrow him, blah blah. Like i said, stuff anyone can figure out if they've actually read it. I should probably take a reread myself and see if I can think of something more interesting to say.

Anyway, I hope this is of some interest to somebody somewhere. Perhaps I'll try to come up with a Homeric reading list next.