Day: January 16, 2009

Siren Song

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ 1 Comment

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, I’ve suddenly seen a bunch of references to Odysseus and the Sirens.  The first one to catch my eye came under the headline Slutty prairie voles make Science news in the Times Beacon Record:

According to an article written by John Tierney in one of my favorite reads, the Science Section of the Tuesday New York Times, we are not far away from an actual pharmaceutical love potion and hence an anti-love vaccine as well.

A love potion may be possible as the result of analysis of brain chemistry in mammalian pair bonding by neuroscientist Larry Young. His work is presented in the latest issue of the highly respected magazine, Nature. But Tierney has taken this a step further. If we know how to make a love potion because we understand what chemicals are involved, he reasons that we also know how to make an anti-love potion, “a vaccine preventing you from making an infatuated ass of yourself.”

OK, so Tierney is not a romantic, but he does make a point. Remember that Odysseus ordered his crew to tie him to the mast as he sailed past the irresistibly seductive Sirens whose aim was to cause ships to crash upon the rocks and their sailors to become prisoners.

Okay … fair enough. You’d figure it would be the article citation from Nature which caused a pile of hits. That’s certainly what happened with a column in the New York Times with the headline Anti-Love Drug May Be Ticket to Bliss.

Could any discovery be more welcome? This is what humans have sought ever since Odysseus ordered his crew to tie him to the mast while sailing past the Sirens.

I can’t check whether the Odysseus/Sirens ref is in the Nature article (it’s behind a payfer wall, of course), but it makes sense for the reference to suddenly appear in a couple of places from the same source. But then we read of a sculpture by Terry Allen which will somehow be broadcasting the Obama inauguration … the public sculpture described thusly in the LA Times:

It is exceedingly strange to encounter these ghostly gray memories of nature entombed in the grove — especially when they seem to be murmuring something at passersby, like Homer’s Sirens beckoning to Odysseus.

… and even less connected is the incipit of a piece in the Motley Fool:

In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus plugged his crew’s ears with wax to tune out the Sirens’ song. He left his own ears unplugged, but he lashed himself to the mast to avoid making any regrettable decisions.

Perhaps the idea was implanted in assorted journalistic synapses with all the coverage of the Blagojevich brouhaha … e.g. the State Journal-Register noted just before Christmas:

The same week in 2004 that Blagojevich skipped his own Governor’s Prayer Breakfast in Springfield in order to react to Chicago Mayor RICHARD DALEY’s proposal for a casino there, Blagojevich quoted both THEODORE ROOSEVELT and Odysseus from Homer’s “The Odyssey.”

In the process of turning down the Chicago casino idea, Blagojevich likened himself to Odysseus being strapped to the mast of his ship so he could hear the beautiful song of the Sirens without being lured to his death.

I think I’ll call these things synchrorefs … (which doesn’t even trigger WordPress’ spellcheck!)

Whence Boys? Whence Girls

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ 1 Comment

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 to tie up the left testicle during intercourse!

The Greeks (well, some of them at least) seemed to associate ‘female’ with the left side and ‘male’ with the right. Here’s a bit from a passage in Aristotle’s Generation of Animals (765a15ff or thereabouts):

Again, as has in fact been said before, a female embryo has actually been observed in the right part of the uterus, and a male one in the left part, and both male and female in the self-same part, and that not once but several times over ; or the male one on the right side, and the female on the left, and no less both are formed on the right side]. There are some who are firmly convinced of a similar view to this, and maintain that males who copulate with the right or left testicle tied up produce male or female offspring respectively : this used in fact to be maintained by Leophanes. Some allege that the same occurs in the case of those who have one testis excised. This statement is untrue, and is a mere piece of guesswork on their part. They start from probabilities and guess what will occur ; they prejudge that it is so before they see it happen.

(Peck and Leslie trans.)

Well, they had a 50-50 chance of being right …

Startling Starlings

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

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 drops this little tidbit:

But a range of research and experience suggests the birds’ positive contributions deserve a hearing. Among other things, starlings are legendary songsters. Since the time of the ancient Romans, starlings have been kept as pets, often for their extraordinary singing capabilities. Emperor Nero and Agrippina had pet starlings that had vast singing repertoires and large vocabularies of human words.

Here’s what Pliny the Elder has to say about that:

Agrippina Claudii Caesaris turdum habuit, quod numquam ante, imitantem sermones hominum. cum haec proderem, habebant et Caesares iuvenes sturnum, item luscinias Graeco ac Latino sermone dociles, praeterea meditantes assidue et in diem nova loquentes, longiore etiam contextu. docentur secreto et ubi nulla alia vox misceatur, adsidente qui crebro dicat ea, quae condita velit, ac cibis blandiente.

(NH 10.59 via Lacus Curtius)

Agrippina, the wife of Claudius Caesar, had a thrush that could imitate human speech, a thing that was never known before. At the moment that I am writing this, the young Caesars have a starling and some nightingales that are being taught to talk in Greek and Latin ; besides which, they are studying their task the whole day, continually repeating the new words that they have learnt, and giving utterance to phrases even of considerable length. Birds are taught to talk in a retired spot, and where no other voice can be heard, so as to interfere with their lesson ; a person sits by them, and continually repeats the words he wishes them to learn, while at the same time he encourages them by giving them food.

(Bostock and Riley trans.)

I assume the ‘young Caesars’ are Nero and Brittanicus …

Another Classical Theme Park in the Works

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

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 a view of the gardens. Plans for the theme park will include various attractions such as a water park, cinemas, theatres, auditoriums, stadiums – some of which will have closed roofs inspired by the Egyptian pyramids, a ski centre, waterfalls, adventure parks, shops, spas, saunas, Roman baths and a museum.

The general theme of the park will be inspired by Greek mythology and the history of Cyprus and this will be reflected in the various rides on offer. The name chosen for the project, “Pygmalion and Galatea”, is also taken from Greek mythology.

hmmmmm ….

Herophilus Quote?

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

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), so I’m curious … does anyone know if this is a genuine quotation? It doesn’t appear very much on the web and doesn’t seem to be mentioned in Heinrich von Staden, Herophilus: The Art of Medicine in Early Alexandria : Edition, Translation, and Essays, although admittedly that was checked via Googlebooks and it was a limited preview.

UPDATE 01/17/09:  Tip o’ the pileus to Tim Parkin who informs us that id does appear in von Staden (p. 238), so it does appear to be legit.