If the scientific investigation of any subject be the proper avocation of the philosopher, Geography, the science of which we propose to treat, is certainly entitled to a high place Strabo Geography 1.1 Our Book Club selection for September 2021 is the opening book of Strabo’s Geography. Strabo (c 66 BCE – c 24 CE) was born in Amasia in Pontus. According to Falconer’s Preface[1], Strabo states that he studied the… Read more
Greeks and Romans in antiquity loved mythology. They depicted images on pottery, on frescos. They decorated their villas and palaces, and made these stories part of their daily lives. They loved these stories so much so that even in death they wanted to be reminded of them through beautifully engraved sarcophaguses. Pliny the Elder, in The Natural History, mentions an observation of a sarcophagus. At Assos in Troas, there is… Read more
I was harnessed to what seemed the largest wheel of the mill: my head was covered with a sack and I was at once given a shove along the curving track of its circular bed. In a circumscribed orbit, ever retracing my steps, I travelled on that fixed path, however I’d not completely lost my intellect and cunning, and made it look as though, as an apprentice to the trade,… Read more
It struck me after viewing the Gallery concerning Aphrodite’s birth, that many strange births occur in Greek mythology. Was it the idea of being able to envision the possibility of giving birth without following the usual and natural birth delivery, be it a goddess or a woman or even horses? Was it the need to add mysterious and supernatural elements to creation, to give eccentric accounts? A famous goddess, Athena,… Read more
Image A: Hēraklēs supported Athena on the left. Geryon on the right supported by his mother Callirhoe (barely visible). Orthros already slain by a Hydra-poisoned arrow. [Geryon addresses Menoites] “Do not with talk of chilling death try to frighten my manly heart, nor (beg me) … for if I am by birth immortal and ageless, so that I shall share in life on Olympos, then it is better (to endure)… Read more