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
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
In part 1 of this series on trees and wood, I found examples of their being used for practical purposes in Homer and Hesiod, and a more detailed analysis by Theophrastus and others in part 2. I also found that Homer and Hesiod also include references to myths, rituals, and sacred spaces associated with trees and wood, including nymphs, so for part 3, this current post, I looked for further… Read more
I became intrigued in the subject of androgyny after some of our Book Club readings. Plato, in the Symposium, reveals a myth on the origin of mankind through the speech of Aristophanes (starting at 189d). The Symposium is a series of amusing speeches on the subject of love, supposedly composed during a meal given by the young poet Agathon. Aristophanes decides to demonstrate the origin of love. In the beginning, he says,… Read more
According to the Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, the art of jewelry making can be observed under the word toreutikē, the art of ornamental works in metal. (τορευτική – toreutikē). Both the Greek and the Roman name come from the words denoting in the two languages “the graver’s tool” (τορεύς – toreus); and in its general sense caelatura may be taken as meaning the arts employed in the production of ornamental… Read more