Schwarzenneger as Hercules?
Daily Kos appears to want some rogueclassicism love …
He’s the Last Action Hero, with nothing to lose. He’s term-limited from running again, can’t run for President, and has a fallback job that he actually likes. He can do what no one has been able to do since Prop 13 passed and reform state government. Watch him single handedly taking on Herculean labors! Slaying the Nurses’ Nemean Lion! Capturing the Golden Hindquarters of the Integrated Waste Management Board for his friends! Slaying the Nine-Headed Hydra of the Prison System! Cleaning out the Muck of the Stable of State Employees! Drama! Plot! John Williams Themed Music!
Classical Pop
New York Magazine has an interview with Iggy Pop, inter alia:
You describe the album as an “alternative score” to Michel Houellebecq’s 2005 sci-fi novel, The Possibility of an Island. What else have you been reading lately?
I read The Jazz Ear, by Ben Ratliff, and I just finished Vermeer’s Hat, by Timothy Brook. And there’s a killer translation of Herodotus out now. I enjoy reading about the Assyrians and the Medians and the Egyptians. I get off on that shit.
This comes just as we were discussing on the Latinteach list some modern songs with a Classical bent … Iggy has a couple that I can recall off the top of my head: Caesar and Curiosity,
Latin in the News
Over the past month or so, there have been quite a few articles relating to Latin, Latin teaching, and the like. Many of the following made the rounds of various lists, but just in case you missed them:
Mary Beard wasn’t enamoured of the new ‘Grace before meals’ written by some Cambridge students:
- Does college need a new grace? (Times)
… and it became a full-blown news item:
Christopher Francese was advocating doing away with Latin on college/university diplomas:
- A Degree in English (NY Times)
Jane Miriam Epperson Brinley wrote a very interesting OpEd piece for the Washington Post on the discontinuation of the AP literature exam:
Latin is on the rise in state schools in the UK, and now there are teacher shortages etc.:
… but some folks still don’t get it:
- Avoiding the arrows of sailors (Guardian)
… but someone did point that out:
- Is the study of Latin all washed up? (Guardian)
Then just the other day, the Times was pondering the same question (I commented in there somewhere):
A nice feature on the US Founders’ knowledge of Latin:
- The Founders Knew Latin (Lew Rockwell)
Deutsche Welle did some coverage of the Latin conference/competition in Arpino:
Students at Cohasset High School were/are trying to save their Latin program in the wake of their teacher’s retirement:
Jim Greenwall is retiring, after teaching for 41 years (!):
Newton North students were remembering their teacher, Robert Mitchell:
There was some recognition of performances on the NLE and JCL from Bexley Middle School … Terre Haute High … TMI …
… and you might want to take a look at this: The Comic Latin Grammar
Classicists in the News
Another bit of catching up …
Sally Knights has put together a new GCSE textbook on Classical Civilization:
- Bristol teacher publishes new classics textbook (Evening Post)
The secret life of Randall McNeill:
- The secret lives of our profs (Lawrentian)
An interview with John Prevas (and Steve Forbes) about their book, Power, Ambition, Glory:
An interview with Sarah Ruden about her Aeneid translation:
- Not Dead Yet (National Review)
Anthony Snodgrass received an honourary degree from UChicago:
Stephen Dyson is a prestigious fellow:
- UB Classicist Elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (UB News)
- Classicist elected fellow (UB Reporter)
Art Robson apparently acquired a plurality of statuseseses (?):
Katharina Volk is the new editrix of TAPA:
A nice feature on Anton Bammer and his work at Ephesus:
- Austrian archaeologist devotes life to Ephesus excavations (Today’s Zaman)
Several St Olaf College students won awards:
Not precisely a Classicist, but architecture instructor Dean Abernathy has an interesting ‘Classical’ project involving Google Earth:
- Instructor brings ancient Rome to life (Coast Report)
… and we were somewhat intrigued by this passing mention in Rowan Pelling’s Q&A column in the Mail, inter alia:
A married male friend has regular lunches with a beautiful, flamehaired classicist to discuss Hannibal, Herodotus and the like. Clearly, lunches that are centred on emotional exchanges are rather different from those that concern hobbies.
… that’s about as gossipy as I get … do with it what you will
Obama Achilleus?
Wonder what the reaction will be to this cartoon in the Times that’s making the rounds:
from the Times of London
Etruscan Necropolis from Foggia
A brief item from AdnKronos:
An ancient Etruscan cemetery has been uncovered by Italian tax police or Guardia di Finanza in the country’s south during a police investigation to stop tomb robbers. The cemetery or necropolis is believed to date back to the Etruscan civilisation that existed in central and southern Italy from 1,200 BC to 550 BC before the Roman era.
The necropolis was found in the province of Foggia, located in the southern region of Puglia.
Police intervention is believed to have prevented the sacking of the 500-square-metre necropolis, in particular five tombs that contained the remains of warriors, buried with precious funerary artefacts dating back to the fourth century before Christ.
During the operation, two people were reported to the authorities.
The illegal trafficking of antique artefacts is highly lucrative in Italy.
The tomb robbers or ‘tombaroli’ steal the items from ancient graves and other historic sites and later sell them on the international black market.
I’d like to think we’ll hear more of this, but the brevity of even the Italian coverage suggests otherwise, alas.
- Italy: Ancient Etruscan cemetery found in south (AdnKronos)
- Scoperta una necropoli etrusca nel Foggiano (Italia Informazioni)
- Ischitella: scoperta necropoli etrusca (Teleradioerre)
This Day in Ancient History
ante diem v nonas quinctilias
- ca 72 A.D. — Martyrdom of Thomas the Apostle
- 273 A.D. — Martyrdom of Irenaeus
- 324 A.D. — Victory of Constantine over Licinius at the Battle of Adrianople
