Male Graduate Students:
un-serious in terms of studies since 1931.
Something called the World Peace Herald has a piece on classical languages which cites Pope Benedict's predilection for Latin homilies as well as the classics program of E.'s alma mater, Hillsdale College.
The piece is riddled with tiny errors ('Cesar's De Bellum Gallicum'?), but check it out anyway.
Reader dave just recommended this quick and dirty glossary of abbreviations and signs used in classical texts. I haven't looked at it too closely but it should be helpful.
It's now been added to the Cheetsheet.
paul cites aratus in Acts 17:28. (in addition, the first part of the verse seems to be a citation of epimenides of crete, also cited by paul in Titus 1:12. Acts 17:28 will be today's verse for reviewing modern languages.
...for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'
Denn in ihm leben, weben und sind wir; wie auch etliche Poeten bei euch gesagt haben: "Wir sind seines Geschlechts."
car en lui nous avons la vie, le mouvement, et l'être. C'est ce qu'ont dit aussi quelques-uns de vos poètes: De lui nous sommes la race...
Poiché in lui viviamo, ci muoviamo e siamo, come persino alcuni dei vostri poeti hanno detto: "Poiché siamo anche sua progenie".
'puesto que en él vivimos, nos movemos y existimos.' Como algunos de sus propios poetas griegos han dicho: 'De él somos descendientes.'
A friend pointed me toward this expanded article on the latest developments. Here's an excerpt:
The original papyrus documents, discovered in an ancient rubbish dump in central Egypt, are often meaningless to the naked eye - decayed, worm-eaten and blackened by the passage of time. But scientists using the new photographic technique, developed from satellite imaging, are bringing the original writing back into view. Academics have hailed it as a development which could lead to a 20 per cent increase in the number of great Greek and Roman works in existence. Some are even predicting a "second Renaissance".
Speaker A: . . . gobbling the whole, sharpening the flashing iron.
Speaker B: And the helmets are shaking their purple-dyed crests, and for the wearers of breast-plates the weavers are striking up the wise shuttle's songs, that wakes up those who are asleep.
Speaker A: And he is gluing together the chariot's rail.
Eureka! Extraordinary discovery unlocks secrets of the ancients
By David Keys and Nicholas Pyke
17 April 2005
Thousands of previously illegible manuscripts containing work by some of the greats of classical literature are being read for the first time using technology which experts believe will unlock the secrets of the ancient world.
Among treasures already discovered by a team from Oxford University are previously unseen writings by classical giants including Sophocles, Euripides and Hesiod. Invisible under ordinary light, the faded ink comes clearly into view when placed under infra-red light, using techniques developed from satellite imaging.
The Oxford documents form part of the great papyrus hoard salvaged from an ancient rubbish dump in the Graeco-Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus more than a century ago. The thousands of remaining documents, which will be analysed over the next decade, are expected to include works by Ovid and Aeschylus, plus a series of Christian gospels which have been lost for up to 2,000 years.
τοσοῦτον δ' ἀπολέλοιπεν ἡ πόλις ἡμῶν περὶ τὸ φρονεῖν καὶ λέγειν τοὺς ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους, ὥσθ' οἱ ταύτης μαθηταὶ τῶν ἄλλων διδάσκαλοι γεγόνασι, καὶ τὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ὄνομα πεποίηκε μηκέτι τοῦ γένους ἀλλὰ τῆς διανοίας δοκεῖν εἶναι, καὶ μᾶλλον Ἕλληνας καλεῖσθαι τοὺς τῆς παιδεύσεως τῆς ἡμετέρας ἢ τοὺς τῆς κοινῆς φύσεως μετέχοντας.
- Isocrates, Panegyricus 50
"So far has our city left behind other men in thought and speech that her students have become the the teachers of others, and she has made the name 'Greeks' seem to be no longer that of a race but of intelligence, and that those be called Greeks who partake of our education rather than of our common nature."
Tim Spalding of www.isidore-of-seville.com e-mailed me just the other day to suggest that we add his new site to the Cheat Sheet.
I highly recommend the site. It currently contains scans from Smith's monumental work on Greek and Roman Antiquities and much more. There's also a new Wiki Classical Dictionary which could benefit from the input of some of our readers (hint).
You can find the link above or in section 4 (Reference) of the Cheat Sheet.
PS: I've fixed the links to the Romance and German dictionaries as well.
PPS: I've also just added a number of online dictionaries including the Monier-Williams Sanskrit Lexicon.
today's verse for review is Psalm 37:7.
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Sei stille dem HERRN und warte auf ihn; erzürne dich nicht über den, dem sein Mutwille glücklich fortgeht.
Garde le silence devant l'Éternel, et espère en lui; Ne t'irrite pas contre celui qui réussit dans ses voies, Contre l'homme qui vient à bout de ses mauvais desseins.
Sta' in silenzio davanti all'Eterno e aspettalo; non affliggerti per colui che prospera nelle sue imprese, per l'uomo che segue i suoi malvagi disegni.
Guarda silencio ante el Señor,
y espera en él con paciencia;
no te irrites ante el éxito de otros,
de los que maquinan planes malvados.
a professor sent a link to a new papyrus that has now been identified as containing archilochean elegiacs. the site has a nice photograph of the fragment and says that it's 'the first known instance of a mid-length mythical narrative in elegiacs'.
I haven't had much to say for this blog (and I still don't) but I do have a PRESSING question I want to present to our readers:
One of the first words we English speakers use (generally) as children is "mine" - a thing which I find truly fascinating. Do you think this is true for other cultures? And for the Romans? And if so (and here is where I am really puzzled), which gender do you think they would use first?
thanks for any input you might have.
today's verse for review is Psalm 35:28.
And my tongue shall declare Your righteousness
And Your praise all day long.
Und meine Zunge soll reden von deiner Gerechtigkeit und dich täglich preisen.
Et ma langue célébrera ta justice, Elle dira tous les jours ta louange.
La mia lingua celebrerà la tua giustizia e canterà la tua lode tutto il giorno.
Con mi lengua proclamaré tu justicia,
y todo el día te alabaré.
it's time to start working on modern languages. we're going to do this by using the Bible, found in a multitude of languages here. today's verse is Psalm 34:4. we will give the verse in english, german, french, italian, and spanish (yes, i realize that more modern languages exist than these five; perhaps we shall add more later).
I sought the LORD, and He answered me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
Da ich den HERRN suchte, antwortete er mir und errettete mich aus aller meiner Furcht.
J'ai cherché l'Éternel, et il m'a répondu; Il m'a délivré de toutes mes frayeurs.
ho cercato l'Eterno, ed egli mi ha risposto e mi ha liberato da tutti i miei spaventi.
Busqué al Señor, y él me respondió;
me libró de todos mis temores.
I suppose it's time I come clean: I no longer have faith in the oral composition theory of the homeric poems.
I highly recommend Douglas Young's epic-length essay 'Never Blotted a Line? Formula and Premeditation in Homer and Hesiod' from Arion 6 (1966) (also reprinted in Niall Rudd's Essays in Classical Literature, 1972).
It just may change your life.
Also a good (and more current) read for those teetering on the fence is M.L. West's reply to reviews of his Homer Teubner by Nagy and Nardelli in the BMCR:
My critics are both (though it takes them in different ways) devotees of the Oralist faith, and they reproach me for not paying sufficient regard to the Good News. Thus Nagy remarks disapprovingly that in my Praefatio I "ignore altogether the work of Parry and Lord", and that throughout my edition "there is a noticeable lack of engagement with oral poetics". Nardelli finds that I "refuse the critical consequences of the Parry-Lord theory"; I show this by marking as spurious a number of verses "which, in their great majority, are easily accounted for in the oralist framework". I have "a keen feeling for Homeric Greek but no sound command in oral linguistics." "He cannot be well acquainted with Parry's principle that rhapsodes would modernize their diction wherever meter does not prevent it since it is his contention that 'Homer' wrote."
Let me take up the last point first. I do not actually commit myself as to whether the poet wrote with his own hand or used an amanuensis, but I do make him responsible for the writing down. Both reviewers imply that there is something controversial, even extreme, in this view. But it is an inescapable fact that we are dealing with a written poem, a text fixed in the course of the writing process (in Parryist theory it could not be otherwise). It cannot be treated as the transcript of a series of oral performances, for even if the poet was capable of creating our Iliad in performance, the means to capture it were not available in antiquity.
There are things which the classics teach us, and about which I could not lightly express myself in public.
max over at in hoc signo vinces has a post on constantine's vision and the sign which constantine was instructed to use as protection in battle, so i thought i might say a little something about it here.
the first thing that should be said is that the separate accounts of constantine's vision/dream must be kept strictly separate, for they do not recount the same event. lactantius (who has a dream, but no vision) includes instructions for the chi-rho at De Mortibus Persecutorum 44 (text; translation):
Commonitus est in quiete Constantinus, ut caeleste signum dei notaret in scutis atque ita proelium committeret. Facit ut iussus est et transversa X littera, summo capite circumflexo, Christum in scutis notat. Quo signo armatus exercitus capit ferrum.
Constantine was directed in a dream to cause the heavenly sign to be delineated on the shields of his soldiers, and so to proceed to battle. He did as he had been commanded, and he marked on their shields the letter X, with a perpendicular line drawn through it and turned round thus at the top, being the cipher of CHRIST. Having this sign, his troops stood to arms.
About the time of the midday sun, when day was just turning, he said he saw with his own eyes, up in the sky and resting over the sun, a cross-shaped trophy formed from light, and a text attached to it whichsaid, `By this conquer' (τούτῳ νίκα). Amazement at the spectacle seized both him and the whole company of soldiers which was then accompanying him on a campaign he was conducting somewhere, and witnessed the miracle. 29 He was, he said, wondering to himself what the manifestation might mean; then, while he meditated, and thought long and hard, night overtook him. Thereupon, as he slept, the Christ of God appeared to him with the sign which had appeared in the sky, and urged him to make himself a copy of the sign which had appeared in the sky, and to use this as protection against the attacks of the enemy. 30 When day came he arose and recounted the mysterious communication to his friends. Then he summoned goldsmiths and jewellers, sat down among them, and explained the shape of the sign, and gave them instructions about copying it in gold and precious stones. This was something which the Emperor himself once saw it to let me also set eyes on, God vouchsafing even this. 31 (1) It was constructed to the following design. A tall pole plated with gold had a transverse bar forming the shape of a cross. Up at [31] the extreme top a wreath woven of precious stones and gold had been fastened. On it two letters, intimating by its first characters the name `Christ', formed the monogram of the Saviour's title, rho being intersected in the middle by chi. These letters the Emperor also used to wear upon his helmet in later times. (2)From the transverse bar, which was bisected by the pole, hung suspended a cloth, an imperial tapestry covered with a pattern of precious stones fastened together, which glittered with shafts of light, and interwoven with much gold, producing an impression of indescribable beauty on those who saw it. This banner then, attached to the bar, was given equal dimensions of length and breadth. But the upright pole, which extended upwards a long way from its lower end, below the trophy of the cross and near the top of the tapestry delineated, carried the golden head-and-shoulders portrait of the Godbeloved Emperor, and likewise of his sons. (3) This saving sign was always used by the Emperor for protection against every opposing and hostile force, and he commanded replicas of it to lead all his armies.
32 (1) That was, however, somewhat later. At the time in question, stunned by the amazing vision, and determined to worship no other god than the one who had appeared, he summoned those expert in his words, and enquired who this
god was, and what was the explanation of the vision which had appeared of the sign. (2) They said that the god was the Onlybegotten Son of the one and only God, and that the sign which appeared was a token of immortality, and was an abiding
trophy of the victory over death, which he had once won when he was present on earth. They began to teach him the reasons for his coming, explaining to him in detail the story of his self-accommodation to human conditions. [32] (3) He listened
attentively to these accounts too, while he marvelled at the divine manifestation which had been granted to his eyes; comparing the heavenly vision with the meaning of what was being said, he made up his mind, convinced that it was as God's own teaching that the knowledge of these things had come to him. He now decided personally to apply himself to the divinely inspired writings. Taking the priests of God as his advisers, he also deemed it right to honour the God who had appeared to him with all due rites. Thereafter, fortifed by good hopes in him, he finally set about extinguishing the menacing flames of tyranny.
Eusebius saw the labarum in its established form, as depicted on Constantine's late coins, and here describes what he had seen later... . Even in this form it could be described as cross-shaped, and resembled a military vexillum; Firm. Mat., Err. prof. rel. 20.7 refers to it as the vexillum fidei.
The whole structure is cruciform. The fact that the military vexillum was cruciform had been noted by Methodius, Porph. 1, who claimed that earthly emperors thus used the cross 'for the destruction of wicked habits'. The description of the wreath and the first two letters of the name of Christ point clearly to the later labarum, as it was depicted on coins.
Like other Christian signs, the chi-rho emblem is in fact rare on Constantine's coins, and the early silver medallions of 315 from Ticinum (Pavia) showing the Emperor wearing a high-crested helmet with the Christogram are exceptional (Fig.3). See P. Bruun, 'The Christian Signs on the Coins of Constantine', Arctos, NS 3 (1962), 5-35, against A. Alfoeldi, 'The Helmet of Constantine with the Christian Monogram', JRS 22 (1932), 9-23; though the form of the chi-rho is attested before Constantine, there is no certain Christian use (E. Dinkler, Signum Crucis (Tuebingen, 1967), 134-5).
Quaint, I'd imagine.
But here's the latest odd search request to catch my eye:
priestly, brain detroit computers
When something great appears and lasts for some time, we can presuppose a careful training, e.g. among the Greeks. How did so many men among them achieve their freedom?
Educate educators! But first educators must educate themselves. It is for these I write.
i've been reading some claudian lately. perhaps someday i'll have something intelligent to say about it.
but i wouldn't hold my breath.
in the meantime, i direct your attention to someone who does. here is bret mulligan's review of the recently published Aetas Claudianea. Eine Tagung an der Freien Universität Berlin vom 28. bis 30. Juni 2002, edited by Widu-Wolfgang Ehlers.
mulligan states:
This volume will be required reading for students of Claudian, and offers much of value to scholars of late antique literary culture and the Classical Tradition in general. In their inclusion of extensive references and supplementary material, most contributors appear to be aiming at an audience beyond that of the Claudian specialist, and taken together the twelve contributions in this volume provide a valuable introduction to the current questions and challenges of Claudian scholarship, as well as a useful overview of its bibliography. Of the twelve contributions, six are in German, four in English, and two in Italian.
In "Claudian's Greek World: Callimachus" (pp. 78-95), Isabella Gualandri reassesses the difficult topic of Claudian's use of Greek models, focusing on a few points of apparent contact between Claudian and Callimachus. She demonstrates how allusions to the Hymn to Delos structure the arrival of Mars in In Eutropium and inform the predicted destruction of the Giants in his Greek Gigantomachy. This last reference leads Gualandri to discuss other instances where Claudian exploits similarities between ancient Gallic and contemporary Gothic invaders, in particular the preface to the second book of the In Rufinum, where the anachronistic interest in Delphi is best explained as a reference to the Hymn to Delos's treatment of the Gallic invasion of 279 BCE. Although Gualandri cautions that "nothing conclusive can be inferred from these few examples," she ventures that Claudian's references to Greek models are not allusions -- i.e. aemulatio intended to be recognized by a learned audience -- but simply material "to be freely exploited and exhibited as if they were the result of his own inventio," an "elusive use of his literary models." In this well-argued essay, Gualandri is meticulous in documenting her sources and providing interesting supplementary information. She thoroughly treats other possible sources and avoids the pitfalls of overstatement that often plague the exposition of poetic models.
Lucio Ceccarelli, "Osservazioni sull'esametro di Claudiano"
Franca Ela Consolino, "Poetry and politics in Claudian's carmina minora 22 and 50"
Siegmar Döpp, "Von Napoleon zu Ludwig XVIII.: Der Claudian-Cento des L.A. Descampe"
Manfred Fuhrmann, "Claudian in der Neuzeit"
Isabella Gualandri, "Claudian's Greek World"
Jacqueline Long, "Claudian and the City: Poetry and Pride of Place"
Jens Michners, "Spott und Ironi in Claudians carmina minora"
Claudio Moreschini, "Paganus pervicacissimus religione e 'filosofia' in Claudiano"
Claudia Schindlerm "Tradition - Transformation - Innovation: Claudians Panegyriken und das Epos"
Peter Lebrecht Schmidt, "Rezeptionsgeschichtliche Erwägungen zur Claudianüberlieferung"
Christine Schmitz, "Das Orpheus-Thema in Claudians De raptu Proserpinae"
Catherine Ware, "Gildo tyrannus: Accusation and Allusion in the Speeches of Roma and Africa"
first of all, it's nice to see dennis back again! i was beginning to wonder whether he'd abandoned us for fairer campi. if anyone else is glad to see his return, they are warmly invited to express their delight in the comments.
and now on to our citation for the day--
Classical scholarship as knowledge of the ancient world cannot, of course, last forever; its material is exhaustible. What cannot be exhausted is the perpetually new adjustment of our own age to the classical world, of measuring ourselves against it. If we assign the classicist the task of understanding his own age better by means of the classical world, then his task is a permanent one.--This is the antinomy of classical scholarship. Men have always, in fact, understood the ancient world exclusively in terms of the present--and shall the present now be understood in terms of the ancient world? More precisely: men have explained the classical world to themselves in terms of their own experience; and from what they have acquired of the classical world in this way, they have assessed, evaluated their own experience. Hence experience is clearly an absolute prerequisite for a classicist. Which means: the classicist must first be a man in order to become creative as a classicist...
The other day I heard a caller to the lcoal sports radio station offer big kuh-DOOZ to the host (and yes, kuh-DOOZ rhymes with 'the news'). Never have I heard kudos butchered so badly.
This morning on Howard Stern I briefly heard the gang repeatedly saying, 'Latin gravitas' apparently in mockery of James Lipton.
Now that I can get behind. The man makes a mean iced tea though.
At the moment I'm working on a new thesis which also was not on our earlier poll. Sorry about that. But the good news is that I have under two months to complete a thesis on meter in Aratus and Nicander, and I'm currently convinced that Nicander's Alexipharmaca is the most underappreciated poem in the history of the world of mankind ever. It's--dare I say it?--really really ridiculously good.
