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Book Club

Book Club | November 2023: Aristotle Animals

We have now discussed the physical characteristics of animals and their methods of generation. Their habits and their modes of living vary according to their character and their food…. Opening of Book 8, translation by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson. For November, we will read selections from Aristotle’s History of Animals. In the Prefatory Note to his translation[1], D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson puts the composition of these studies in Aristotle’s middle age, started… Read more

History

Women in Diodorus Siculus | part 1: Introduction and Contexts

This series of blogposts originated in the Kosmos Society’s Book Club reading, in the summer of 2023, of Diodorus Siculus’ Library, Book 17, which concerns the campaigns of Alexander the Great[1] in the fourth century BCE. As we read, it became evident that more contextual material was available in Books 16, 18, 19 and 20 of the Library, and also in the works of Plutarch[2] and Arrian[3]. Wikipedia dates Diodorus… Read more

Visiting Scholars

Open House | A New Translation of the Nicomachean Ethics, with Susan Sauvé Meyer

We were pleased to welcome Susan Sauvé Meyer, University of Pennsylvania, for an Open House discussion about her new translation abridged from the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle. The discussion was streamed live on Friday October 20 at 11 a.m. EDT on the Kosmos Society YouTube channel, and was recorded. In preparation for this event you might like to read: her article ‘Aristotelian virtues for social media‘ an article from the… Read more

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Dionysus versus Pentheus, with Robert Garland

We were excited to welcome Robert Garland for an Open House entitled “Dionysus versus Pentheus.” The event took place on Friday, September 8 at 11:00 a.m. EDT and was recorded. To get ready for the event, you might like to read Bacchae and think about the questions Garland is posing: Questions for Bacchae You can watch the recording down below or on the Kosmos Society YouTube channel Robert Garland Robert… Read more

Book Club

Book Club | October 2023: Terence Phormio

I present you a new Play, which they call “Epidicazomenos,” in Greek: in the Latin, he calls it “Phormio;” because the person that acts the principal part is Phormio, a Parasite, through whom, principally, the plot will be carried on from the Prologue, translated by Henry Thomas Riley For October, we come to our second play of the year: Phormio (“The Scheming Parasite”) by Terence. The Encyclopedia Britannica[1] says that… Read more