There is no Book Club reading or meeting for December, because of the holiday season, but here is a preview of what is coming up in the first part of 2023. Details of selected passages, and links to free online versions, will be included in the monthly announcements as usual. Looking forward to further interesting discussions, comparing ideas and reactions, in the Forum and via Zoom—they are always enriching voyages… Read more
We were excited to welcome Jared Simard of New York University for an In-House presentation and discussion entitled “Rockefeller Center and the Image of a Titan.” The event took place on Friday, December 2, at 11:00 a.m. EST and was accessible to Kosmos members only. To prepare for the conversation, you might like to look at the two images of titans below, try to identify any key iconography, and brainstorm… Read more
Bust at Delphi believed to be of Plutarch In September 2022 the Kosmos Society Book Club read Plutarch’s Virtues of Women. We discussed the main themes: the fight for justice, defeating the oppressor, and Plutarch’s writing skills. However, there were some themes that are perhaps less significant, if significance is measured by the amount of attention paid to them, but which, nevertheless, made me think of other similar stories, and… Read more
We were excited to welcome Maria Gerolemou for an Open House entitled “Technolarynges and the Production of artificial voice in Antiquity.” The event took place on Friday, November 18 at 11:00 a.m. EST and was recorded. To get ready for the event, you might like to view the pdf file which includes the following passages: Aristotle, On the Soul 420b 5-31 Hero Pneumatics 1.15, 2.32 Lucian in his Alexander, The… Read more
Who hasn’t dreamed of having a robot to accomplish certain tasks? For a long time people have conceived the existence and the possibility of having or creating such automatons, or robots, or androids or humanoids in their imaginary worlds, to replace them, or to do things in their place, or just to be with them. The word “robot” is recent (a 20th-century word), but the ancients used the word “automaton”… Read more