The wine-transporting ships of Portus The third century marble plaque of the Collezione Torlonia—as represented in Figure 1— is a votive dedicated to the wine god Liber—Bacchus.[1] The relief represents a ship arriving at Rome’s imperial seaport Portus. A line of waves frames the lower side of the decoration on the relief. On the left the waves are high and on the right the waves are low. The left of… Read more
Eugen Bracht: Memory of Gizeh, 1883 In a recent post, Claudie Cox shared her impressions and photos from a tour in Egypt. And a couple of years ago, the Herodotus Study Group was reading Book 2 of Herodotus’ Histories, which included his observations of Egypt and accounts of its history and customs. So this brought to mind a few of the passages from Book 2 that stood out for us.… Read more
Diodorus Siculus This is the final blogpost that was inspired by my reading of Diodorus’s Library[1] for the Kosmos Society Book Club in 2023. Diodorus wrote about the actions of Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE, and about the wars of succession that took place after the death of Alexander. Earlier blogposts looked at the general social and religious contexts at the time,… Read more
Wail, wail, Ah for Adonis! He is lost to us, lovely Adonis! Lost is lovely Adonis! The Loves respond with lamenting. —from Bion’s Lament for Adonis, translated by John Addington Symonds February’s Book Club selections are from laments and so-called bucolic poetry, with a focus on Adonis. These poems refer to myths and rituals, and include laments for the beautiful dead Adonis; a lamentation by Heracles’ wife Megara to her mother-in-law Alcmena;… Read more
2024 sees the tenth anniversary of the Kosmos Society! So, to celebrate, this post includes some of the highlights and accomplishments from our first year, including Open House events, learning resources, and posts written and shared by community members. Enjoy! Kosmos Society 2014 The Kosmos Society was originally created[1] with the name Hour 25 to provide discussion space and preliminary resources for those who had taken part in the MOOC[2]… Read more