Classical Chickens
A lengthy article in Smithsonian Magazine about the rise of the chicken to its current place of culinary dominance has scattered Classical allusions (most of which are familiar) of interest: The chickens that saved Western civilization were discovered, according to legend, by the side of a road in Greece in the first decade of the [...]
Also Seen: Weird Ancient Deaths
Worth a look: 10 Weirdest Ways That Ancient Rulers Died (io9) … a couple of them aren’t ancient, really …
Carlos Pena: Gladiator?
I’ll admit I’m not a major baseball fan, but this one seems worthy of some rc love. This story actually broke last week but I searched in vain for a photo … here’s the incipit of a piece in the Tampa Bay Times: The scary-looking, metal, medieval-style helmet mask that sits in Carlos Peña’s locker [...]
Classical Courts
In a strange bit of synchronicity, my spiders this week seem to have found several examples of the Classical World making appearances in American courtrooms. Earlier this week we mentioned a decision wherein justices decided (while citing Robert Fagles!) that translation is not interpretation (Honored Justices, We Respectfully Disagree). Next, they brought back an abridged [...]
Next Footwear Trend ~ The Greek Sandal?
My spiders always seem to bring me back interesting things … this week, I was met with this photo (which seems to disappear a lot … if it does, there’s a couple of people at the top, and a pile of Greek-looking sandals at the bottom … visit the mentioned blogpost if you want to [...]
Way Cool Odysseus and Polyphemus Painting Coming to Auction
… so cool, in fact, that I made it my facebook cover page yesterday. Here’s the beginning of Art Daily’s coverage: A masterpiece by Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin depicting a dramatic retelling of a story from Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ is to headline Sotheby’s sale of European Paintings in London on Monday, 11 June 2012. Odysseus and [...]
A Pandect of Gripes: Crucifixions, Earthquakes, Open Access, and Outreach
Okay … this one hit the internets yesterday and I’ve been nursing vipers in my breast ever since. It begins with an item at Discovery Newswhich begins thusly: Jesus, as described in the New Testament, was most likely crucified on Friday April 3, 33 A.D. The latest investigation, reported in the journal International Geology Review, [...]
Woohoo! More Roman Numerals in the NFL!
This is great! After years and years of listening to NFL commentators whine every year about the difficulties of having to deal with Roman numerals every time some major NFC AFC final comes around, we read today that one of our Latin-loving-recent-draft-picks will be the first to sport Roman numerals on the back of his [...]
Trojan Origins
So I’m all marked out for the day and decide to catch up (again) on some email … immediately I’m met by the incipit to this thing in the Huffington Post: Everyone remembers Homer’s Troy as the society the Greeks fooled into accepting the Trojan Horse — the gift that ultimately led to their [...]
Honored Justices, We Respectfully Disagree
My spiders bring back some strange things from time to time … a case in point is an item from the Courthouse News Service regarding a suit brought by a Japanese baseball player … inter alia they suggest: A divided Supreme Court vacated that decision Monday, finding that the statute that compensates prevailing litigants for “interpreters” [...]
Celebrity Gossip’s Classical Roots
Of course, rogueclassicism readers are well aware that all the sorts of thing that fills the airwaves with chatter about this or that Kardashian or Lohan or Gaga or whatever would have been perfectly familiar in ancient Rome, but Johan Kugelberg had a nice piece for the Independent blog which is worth excerpting … first, [...]
Médée Miracle
Back in April, a certain Jesse Vader dropped me a note: Because the people at Urban Distribution have been very helpful in providing access to the movie Medee Miracle for my Latin class here in Colorado, as we analyze different versions of the Medea myth, including Euripides, Ovid, Jose Triana, and Tonino de Bernardi, I [...]
A Couple of More Podcasts from ABC Tasmania
As long as I’m poking around their archives, here’s a couple more podcasts of interest from ABC Tasmania (I haven’t listened to these, but I’m assuming — as in previous forays — the player might not work, but the download does): Julius Caesar and the ides of March. (Geoff Adams) Marathon and how it changed [...]
Wonders of the World Podcasts
More from the ever-growing depths of the ‘to blog’ file of my mailbox … for the past while, the fine folks at ABC Tasmania have been bringing Classicist Geoff Adams in to enlighten us about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World … the series has just concluded (I think), so here they all are [...]
Discussing the Discobolus
The Discobolus seems to be much in the news today because it is being featured at the Olympics, of course, but also because a Chinese sculptor has made a ‘companion piece’, to wit: The BBC has a nice interview with Ian Jenkins about the BM’s version of the discobolus, and a bit of chat about [...]
Socrates Going on Trial Again
I first read about this in Greek Reporter a few days ago, but it wasn’t sufficiently detailed for my liking … now ANSA comes through, however: Have you ever dreamed of having a time machine to travel as you wish into the past and personally witness an historical event? Today, in some ways, this is [...]
Some Ancient/Modern Olympics Commentary
A couple of items of interest comparing Olympics ancient and modern: The real ancient Olympic spirit: political, bawdy, and brutal (Boston Globe) [by Neil Faulkner, of Military Times and Current Archaeology fame] Paying your way to the Olympics (Courier) [by David Pritchard from UQueensland]
Kermit as Caligula?
Strange one from the Independent: It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights – Kermit the Frog is in appearing in a tale of dictatorship, violence and sexual depravity. Audiences will see the children’s character, along with hero He-Man and clown Ronald McDonald, in a much darker way later this month [...]
Also Seen: Trojans and Security
Wired reprises an oldie but a goodie: April 24, 1184 B.C.: Trojan Horse Defeats State-of-the-Art Security (Wired)
Utter B.S.: Veni, Vidi, Vici Trademarked
Okay, this is officially ridiculous … first it was the Volvo nonsense, then Lamborghini with its Deimos nonsense, and now some town in Turkey has managed to trademark Julius Caesar’s phrase? From Hurriyet: The municipality of Zile in the northern province of Tokat has announced the acquisition of the Turkish patent license for the Roman [...]
Gladiator Epics — Classics Departments’ Dirty Little Secret
Lengthy piece in the Miami Herald on the ongoing popularity of Gladiator/Roman movies … along the way, they interview some Classicists: From the biblical epics of the ’50s to the toga dramas of the ’60s through more recent hits such as “300,” “Gladiator,” “Braveheart” and TV series such as “Hercules,” “Xena: Warrior Princess,” “Rome” and [...]
Spears and Lohan as Iphigenia?
This is kind of interesting, and I might have to track this book down … from an interview in Newsweek with Tom Payne about his book Fame, inter alia: You bring up the theme of sacrifice—for example, you link Britney Spears’s meltdown with the ritual killing of Iphigenia, who, legend has it, was sacrificed so [...]
Citanda: Brett Favre and Achilles
Mentioned this on facebook last week … forgot to post it here. Here’s the incipit: Even though Homer’s Iliad was written approximately three thousand years ago, the character of Achilles is still alive and well. He is forty one years old, lives in Mississippi, and spends his autumns and winters in Minnesota. Minnesota Vikings quarterback [...]
Classical Coronation Street?
Interesting item brought back by my spiders from a piece in the National marking the 50th anniversary of Coronation Street … inter alia: In that sense, it doesn’t matter that the soap is set in a version of northern England where life can be slightly grim and unglamorous. Because once you’ve got past the accents [...]
