#Thelxinoe ~ Classics News for April 2, 2021

Hodie est a.d. IV Non. Apr. 2774 AUC ~ 20 Elaphebolion in the fourth year of the 699th Olympiad

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The campaigning season was now fast approaching, if the Hellenic league were going to defeat the Persians they would need to unite once again.

Sarah F. Porter (she/her/hers) is a Ph.D candidate in the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University with a concentration in New Testament / Early Christianity and a secondary field in archaeology. She holds an M.Div. from Vanderbilt University Divinity School with a certificate in gender, sexuality, and religion, and she earned her B.A. in English and Religion from Southwestern University. Currently, she is a William R. Tyler Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Her dissertation, “Early Christian Deathscapes,” examines the production and flow of affects through the martyria, cemeteries, and homilies of fourth-century Antioch (modern-day Antakya, Turkey).

Many of us have spent a lot of time at home this year. What would that have been like in ancient Babylon? Heather talks about housing in the first millennium BC. What were houses like, who lived in them, and how did they use them? She discusses what…

Professor Angelos Chaniotis joins The Greek Current to talk about the latest efforts to reunite the Parthenon marbles and explore his proposal for a new approach to the issue that he explains in his op-ed in Kathimerini: “Marbles United, not Marbles Returned”.

The overview effect, as described on The Science Show in February brings reassurance and perspective. Yasmin Haskell discusses examples of the overview effect she has discovered in the writings Lucretius. The poet and philosopher Lucretius lived through the dying days of the Roman Republic. Times were tough. Raging wars brough anxiety and chaos.

Two questions: 1) Is this a nuanced and thoughtful take on the religious and political strife in Alexandria and the wider Roman world in the 4th/5th century CE? 2) Why is this movie called Agora? We dive into both issues as well as what we know about the real Hypatia (not much), why she’s a great candidate for a dramatic treatment and why seeing Earth from orbit will make you realize that all our differences are just the petty squabbles of losers who haven’t been to space. Colin tells a very relevant story about a philosopher who reveals a vampire. Larger question, if you were sent back in time (to say ancient Rome), what knowledge or technology would you be able to bring with you to give yourself an edge? Was this all just an excuse to talk about Game of Thrones?

Jasper answers this question from Dag, what’s the latest vote on Caesar? A ruthless man who butchered and enslaved women and children for his personal benefit or a saviour in terms of combating and changing a corrupt oligarchy?

In one of the most popular episodes from our archive, Dan is joined by Francesca Stavrakopoulou to discuss the history and myths that surround Easter. Francesca Stavrakopoulou is Professor of Hebrew Bible & Ancient Religion at Exeter University. Her research is primarily focused on ancient Israelite and Judahite religions, and portrayals of the religious past in the Hebrew Bible. She is interested in biblical traditions and religious practices most at odds with Western cultural preferences.

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Alia

‘Sorting’ Out Your Day:

Today on the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar:

If it thunders today, it portends justice in the form of prosperity for good people and paucity for evil people.

… adapted from the text and translation of:

Jean MacIntosh Turfa, The Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar, in Nancy Thomson de Grummond and Erika Simon (eds.), The Religion of the Etruscans. University of Texas Press, 2006. (Kindle edition)