What is the role played by fathers and sons in ancient Greek epic and lyric? Are fathers good role models? Do they show or teach their children how to behave or function? What kind of relationships do we witness in the texts? Are immortal and mortal fathers portrayed in similar ways? A strong link seems to bond fathers and sons. Of course, the relationship between gods and their sons is very… Read more
In Homeric poetry, apart from family members there are other members of the household [oikos] who are described by many different Greek words, and carry out differing roles. We were interested in understanding what those words would have meant and how servitude was portrayed, in the context of ancient Greek song culture of the Iliad and Odyssey. We start our exploration with female slaves/servants. Some were captured in war, as foreseen… Read more
Aeacus [Aiakos] while he reigned in Aegina was renowned in all Greece for his justice and piety, and was frequently called upon to settle disputes not only among men, but even among the gods themselves.[1] Whether Aiakos actually settled disputes among the gods themselves is supported by Pindar when referring to the nymph Aegina who “…bore Aeacus [Aiakos], the dearest of all men on earth to the loud-thundering father. Aeacus… Read more
In the previous posts in this series we looked at descriptions of hair for males and for females. This time we look at some examples of how hair features in ritual events as depicted in the texts. Ritual offering of hair Achilles and his companions cut their hair and offer it in commemoration at the funeral of Patroklos: In the midst of them his comrades bore Patroklos [135] and covered… Read more
The classic example of cartography exercised as science is by Claudius Ptolemaeus of Alexandria (87–150 CE). The Romans, however, followed their own methodology, generally qualified as a decline relative to the Greek art and science of cartography, but with a logic that is the subject of this post. The Ptolemaic approach comprised a system of orthogonal terms, being the coordinates of latitude and longitude. The advanced mathematical basis that is… Read more