[1] Anger [mēnis], goddess, sing it, of Achilles, son of Peleus— 2disastrous [oulomenē] anger that made countless pains [algea] for the Achaeans, 3 and many steadfast lives [psūkhai] it drove down to Hādēs, 4 heroes’ lives, but their bodies it made prizes for dogs [kuōn, pl.] [5] and for all birds, and the Will of Zeus was reaching its fulfillment [telos]. Iliad 1.1–5 In this very familiar passage we see the… Read more
Trade in ivory has been banned since 1989 to conserve elephants[1]. However, in the ancient world they made use of ivory. How did the ancient Greeks perceive it and use it? I assumed it would be for ornamental purposes, and would have been carefully carved, but what do the texts and artifacts tell us? Its sheen is mentioned in an aside Telemachus makes to Peisistratos about the materials and decoration… Read more
A guest post by William Moulton One Saturday in July I arrived at the British Museum about 11:30, just in time for the free tour of the Nereid Monument. I always thought it was a nymphaeum—a shrine to the Nereids—but it isn’t. I discovered that it was the tomb of Arbinas the dynast of Lycia—a sort of a sub-king to the Persian king. For those who don’t know, after Alexander… Read more
In March 2017, the Book Club will be discussing Seneca’s Phaedra. This is the first of a series of posts which intend to illuminate the authors and works discussed as means of enriching the ongoing dialogue. A guest post by Georgia Strati Lucius Annaeus Seneca (known as Seneca the Younger) was, according to the standard biographical entries, a Roman philosopher, statesman, orator, and tragedian, living between c. 4 BCE (reign… Read more
A guest post by Elizabeth Howell I’m a science journalist by training and trade. In April 2016, I realized I had spent more than a decade working at my career, to the point where I forgot to have unrelated hobbies. So I stepped back from a few obligations and plunged myself into lifelong learning through my local library and online courses. This led me to reviving an old university interest… Read more