Restoring a Warrior
Dorothy King beat me to the punch on this one (as many people do) … Some engineering types from the University of Warwick teamed up with some archaeologist types from the University of Southampton and the Herculaneum Conservation Project to digitally ‘restore’ a head from Herculaneum which is believed to depict a fallen Amazon warrior. [...]
Quicksilver
This is one of those things that I’ve long wondered about, but never managed to check out. A piece — apparently aimed at kids — in the Christian Science Monitor yaks about assorted origins of the names of elements and their symbols. Inter alia, the symbol for mercury is glossed thusly: But my favorite symbol [...]
d.m. Rev. Frank Lihvar
From the Plain Dealer: The Rev. Frank Lihvar, 81, who died Thursday, taught Latin and Greek at John Carroll University for the past 38 years, eight of them after officially retiring. The Cleveland native and 60-year Jesuit graduated from Benedictine High School, West Baden College of Indiana and the University of Chicago, where he earned [...]
d.m. Jill Braithwaite
From the Independent: Jill Braithwaite established a European reputation in archaeology for her study and interpretation of Roman face pots. Before she started her research, these strange pots had turned up singly or in very small groups throughout the Roman Empire but, with a few exceptions, they had remained isolated and uninterpreted finds. After 15 [...]
Another Live Auctioneer Auction
… again, without any information about origins. This time, it’s a Roman dagger (pugio) and spear tip: This is lot 901 and is the only Roman item with a photo in this section of the online catalog. Interestingly/suspiciously, it is flanked by A Collection of Roman Glass Artifacts (898), A Roman Earthenware Patera (899), A [...]
Siren Song
One of the things I think we need a new word or term for is the phenomenon whereby someone notices a sudden ‘cluster’ of mentions of some potentially ‘obscure’ reference to something or someone — sort of like synchronicity of reference or something like that. A case in point is that over the past week, [...]
Whence Boys? Whence Girls
The Today Show (Australian version), commenting on Tom Cruise’s and Katie Holmes’ desire for a baby boy lists assorted myths associated with choosing the sex of the child, inter alia: The ancient Greeks used to believe that girls were created from sperm from the left testicle so in order to get a boy, they used [...]
Startling Starlings
A while back on the Classics list in a context I can’t recall, I mentioned that the populations of starlings and turkey vultures seemed to be on the increase in the area I live in (Southern Ontario). As it turns out, the starlings are actually declining, according to a piece in the Star, which also [...]
Another Classical Theme Park in the Works
The Cyprus Property Magazine reports that Russian investors are proposing a theme park for Pyla … some details, inter alia: The park will seek to gain the reputation of being the ‘Euro Disney of the Mediterranean’. It will include a 1,000 room five star hotel that will be shaped so that all the rooms have [...]
Herophilus Quote?
A piece in the Clarion Ledger opens thusly: Ancient Greek physician Herophilus stated, “When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, strength cannot fight, intelligence cannot be applied, art cannot become manifest, wealth becomes useless.” Herophilus is one of those ancient medical types who rarely gets mentioned (Hippocrates and Galen seem to hog the spotlight), [...]
Olympian Wonder of Nature?
Apparently the same folks (maybe) who did the revoting on Wonders of the World a few years back are trying the same thing with the Seven Wonders of Nature. The Greek press is all agog because Mount Olympus made it past the first stage of voting. Glancing at the official list, others which might be [...]
Classical Shipping
I’ve often toyed with the idea of putting together a ‘Classical Stock Portfolio’ because the business pages regularly turn up in my scans with stuff that is clearly Classically-inspired. The latest is a piece on Genco Shipping, which includes a list of its ships: Interesting ‘imperial’ bent to those recently-named members of the fleet. Interesting [...]
Matters Theatrical
For some reason over the past week or so there has been a spate of reviewish sorts of things of plays etc. with a Classical focus … here are the links in no particular order: Pencil This In (Gothamist on The Judgment of Paris; includes a link to a video preview) Euripides’ ‘Medea’ reborn at [...]
Say What?
A piece in the Guardian, lamenting passed sportscasters mentions, inter alia: Not only did he, just before his death, criticise the BBC’s plan to phase out commentator Clive Everton in favour of brasher celebrity names, back in 1998 he stormed off the set of Channel 4′s Under The Moon after host Danny Kelly suggested the [...]
