#Thelxinoe ~ Your Morning Salutatio for August 5, 2019

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

Hodie est Non. Sextilies (Augustas) 2772 AUC ~  5 Metageitnion in the third year of the 699th Olympiad.

In the News

[There’s something in the inaccessible digital edition of the Telegraph about some sort of dispute over the sale of this item to the Met a few months ago]

In Case You Missed It 

Public Facing Classics

Greek/Latin News

Fresh Bloggery

Fresh Podcastery

This episode explores the controversial Nazareth Inscription which some historians, Bible scholars, and Christian apologists claim is hard, inscriptional proof of Jesus’s empty tomb. In this episode, Clint discusses the bizarre story around this inscription’s discovery, publication, its contents, and whether or not it is concrete proof of Jesus’s empty tomb.

Seneca’s Phaedra (c. 50s CE) is the story of an illicit passion, a stoic cautionary tale and simultaneously vivid character study.

Book Reviews

Dramatic Receptions

Professional Matters

Alia

‘Sorting’ Out Your Day:

Today on the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar:

If it should thunder today, it signifies that women are wiser than men.

… 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)

#Thelxinoe: Weekend Edition ~ August 4, 2019

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

Hodie est a.d.  pridie nonas Sextilies (Augustas) 2772 AUC ~  4 Metageitnion in the third year of the 699th Olympiad.

Our first attempt at a weekend edition with some variation of the sort of content one gets in the daily edition (when one is more in a hurry to catch up, I think), with an idea that it will be perused at a more leisurely pace … expect it every Sunday around noon Eastern time …

In the News

In Case You Missed It ~ Long Reads

Public Facing Classics

Greek/Latin News

Fresh Bloggery

Mouse Meets Frog: Both Die Terribly – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE 

Blog: Addressing the Divide Between Art History and Classics | Society for Classical Studies 

Weekend Reading: On Leisure and Libraries – Classical Studies Support 

Anatomical votive reliefs and healing landscapes: archaeological evidence in a geographical context | The Votives Project 

Book Club | August 2019: Apollodorus Library, 3.8–3.16 | The Kosmos Society 

Dirk Obbink, Scott Carroll, and Sappho | Variant Readings

The Poor Trojans Are All Dead – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE 

Bingeworthy Past Podcastery

[a podcast which began long ago which you should have listened to by now]

Landscape Modery

Professional Matters

Twitter Highlights

[I’m still trying to figure out how best to handle this section]

Alia

‘Sorting’ Out Your Day:

Today on the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar:

If it should thunder today, there will be a food shortage for both humans and animals

… 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)

Barry Baldwin ~ Pie in the Sky

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

Reprinted with permission of the author himself, who years ago had to deal with yours truly as a student. Errors in transcription accrue to the latter.

(Titular honours shared with policeman-cook Henry Crabbe)

“Every mathematics master dreads the day when he will have to explain the Theorem of Pythagoras” – HF Ellis, The World of A. J. Wentworth, B.A. (Penguin, 1964), p18.

Not that the square on the hippotamus, as we schoolboys dubbed it, plays any part here (anyway, the Babylonians had cracked it long before). Go to Plato’s Meno for an ancient geometry lesson, and for a modern novel Arturo Sarigalli, Pythagoras’ Revenge: A Mathematical Mystery, (Princeton, 2009). Pythagoras (below), who like Socrates and Christ wrote nothing — some late forgeries did circulate —  was the archetypal numbers rather than letters man, thinking them key to the Universe (touch of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and everything else – good man to have beside you when doing the lottery.

Sources for Pythagoras (sixth-century BC. no precise dates) date long after his death, Plato largely ignoring him and Aristotle’s treatise on Pythagoreans being lost. Chiefly the biographies of lamblichus, Porphyry, and (most detailed) Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers (bk8). Best modern thumbnail sketch is Bertrand Russell’s (History of Western Philosophy, NY, 1945, p31): “He may be described as a combination of Einstein and Mrs Eddy. He founded a religion, of which the main tenets were the transmigration of souls and the sinfulness of eating beans.”

Our sage claimed several pre-existences, including that of Trojan War warrior Euphorbus. He once stopped someone beating a dog, claiming to hear an old friend’s voice in its yelps – a very doggy dogma. Living acquaintances included his slave Zamolxis, later equated with Saturn and worshipped by the Getæ tribe (Herodotus – sceptically, Histories, bk 4 ch93).

The bean-ban, one of a long list of his sectarian taboos, coming oddly from the strict vegetarian Pythagoras (direct link with Adolf H here), was variously explained by their flatulence potential or physical similarity to testicles – a lot of balls?). It was his eventual downfall. “‘The unregenerate hankered after beans” (Russell), Crotoniates rebelled, the fleeing Pythagoras refused to cross a bean field to safety, and was lynched – thus the no-have-bean became a has-been.

Another reason for local discontent was probably his ideological objection to fucking, declaring it a sin, especially if indulged in summertime – no beach-orgies on the Costa del Pyth, then.

Admirers called him the wisest man who ever lived. However, his near contemporary, Heraclitus “The Weeping Philosopher’, gibed (1140) “Much learning does not bring intelligence, otherwise it would have taught Pythagoras” – classic academic back-biting, a bit rich from one who (Diogenes Laertius, bk9 chl) thought being buried in cow-dung would cure his dropsy – literally in the shit.

Born on Samos, Pythagoras spent time on Lesbos and Crete, learned his lore in Egypt, and ended up heading a pre-Platonic dictatorship of the philosophers at Croton in southern Italy. For good measure, he is credited with an educational trip to the Underworld. Samos was then ruled by Polycrates, famous for flinging a ring into the sea and having it returned via the belly of a fish (Herodotus, bk3 ch42 – “The ring lost in a lake, and what was found when a fish was caught…” – Fort, Books, p864).

Apart from his trip to Hades, Pythagoras was also credited with space and time travel and omnipresence, making him an ancient combination of Dr Who and Hermione Granger: When terrestrially crossing the River Nessus, bystanders swore they heard it address him by name. Though no ordinary author, he claimed the ability to write on the Moon, achieving this lunography by tracing letters in blood on a looking-glass, which he then reflected on to its disc. He comported a glowing bodily aura, along with a publicly displayed golden thigh. This gained literary gloss through his public utterances, written down by his disciples with the pioneering tag Autos Epha (Ipse Dixit), and circulated as his “Golden Sayings. “…Tomorrow we must have a real go at Pythagoras…” – Ellis, p21

Classical Corner 134: Fortean Times 272 (March, 2011), p. 17

#Thelxinoe ~ Your Morning Salutatio for August 2, 2019

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

Hodie est a.d. IV Non. Sextilies (Augustas) 2772 AUC ~  2 Metageitnion in the third year of the 699th Olympiad

In the News

In Case You Missed It

Public Facing Classics

Fresh Bloggery

Fresh Podcasts

Socrates was a scholar, teacher, and philosopher born in ancient Greece. His Socratic method laid the groundwork for Western systems of logic and philosophy. When the political climate of Greece turned against him, Socrates was sentenced to death by hemlock poisoning in 399 B.C. He accepted this judgment rather than fleeing into exile. His life is chronicled through very few sources: the dialogues of Plato and Xenophon and the plays of Aristophanes. Today as part of our fund drive, we are in conversation with Armand D’Angour about the Life of Socrates and his influence on western intellectual tradition.

Book Reviews

Dramatic Receptions

Professional Matters

Alia

‘Sorting’ Out Your Day:

Today on the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar:

If there is any thunder today, it portends the outbreak of disease and a shortage of the necessities of life.

… 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)

#Thelxinoe ~ Your Morning Salutatio for August 1, 2019

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

Hodie est Kal. Sextilies (Augustas) 2772 AUC ~  1 Metageitnion in the third year of the 699th Olympiad

Apologies for missing yesterday’s edition … laptop connectivity issues.

In the News

Latin/Greek News

Public Facing Classics

Fresh Bloggery

Fresh Podcasts

Macrinus has made a treaty with the Parthians and at long last, the two mighty empires are at peace. It likely won’t last, but at this point it matters little: now he can finally get down to the business of ruling the empire.

Guest: Dr Caillan Davenport (Senior Lecturer, Roman History, Macquarie University/Humboldt Research Fellow, Goethe University, Frankfurt)

After winning the Alexandrian War and restoring Cleopatra to her throne, Julius Caesar returned to Rome. And then—he kept busy. Settling an insurrection among his troops, getting himself declared dictator for another 10 years, cleaning up the resistance, packing the Senate with his friends, and throwing himself not one, not two, not three—but four epic Triumphs.

All Caesar’s barriers to power had been removed. Now there was no one to stand in the way of doing exactly what he wanted with the Roman Empire.

According to the historical evidence, the first stirrings of philosophical inquiry began 2600 years ago in ancient Greece with a group of thinkers known as the Presocratics (or pre-Socratics). In this episode we try to shed light on these early pioneers of philosophy.

Our guest is André Laks, professor of ancient philosophy at Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City. Laks is the co-editor of the recent 9-volume Harvard Loeb edition of the early Greek philosophical fragments – the first comprehensive edition to be made in over a hundred years.

My guest this week is Maria Wyke, Professor of Latin at University College London. Maria and I we talk about everything from her own Classical education, to presentations of Ancient Rome in film, to the ways we can use the ancient world to understand ourselves. Maria also had some excellent advice for young pupils of Latin who might be asking ‘why’ they’re studying an apparently dead language.

Book Reviews

Dramatic Receptions

Professional Matters

Alia

‘Sorting’ Out Your Day:

Today on the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar:

If there is any thunder today, the state will prosper and there will be an abundance (of wealth?).

… adapted from the 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)