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blogographos is a public blog to which anyone interested in Greek and Roman antiquity may post. This means interested laymen as well as professional classicists and students. This blog is not intended as a challenge to the resources for classicists currently available--chief among them the Classical Greek and Latin Discussion Group, hosted at the University of Kentucky, and David Meadows's rogueclassicism--but rather as a complement.
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How do I post to blogographos? Register at blogographos using the form in the sidebar. Once your registration is complete, open the blogthis window to begin a post.
But what to post? Here are some possibilities: interesting links, reviews of classics-related media, book announcements, questions, amusing anecdotes of a classical nature, suggestions about improving the blog, and so on. Try to keep things intelligent and properly spelt.
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Straight Outta Cambridge
Via the excellent ARLT blog comes news of another new classics blog. Mary Beard of Cambridge University now has a site with the Times: A Don's Life.
Also seen:
Museum director arrested as Croesus fakes exposed
Mistrust Keeps Macedonian Mummies in Limbo
and White wine turns up in King Tutankhamen's tomb USA Today
Octopedes and penes
Noting that he always thought "classical scholars were stuffy pedants," Frank Wilson at Books, Inq. links to "Seasonal sex and seafood" by Peter Stothard in the Times Online. Stothard's piece, I should add, contains the very nice phrase "penile revisionists."
Physicists provide open access papers for Ancient History and Archaeology
If you're looking for accessible academic papers on the classical world then you might want to look in Arxiv, the pre-print repository for physical sciences. I was looking for a paper, hindered only by forgetting the author's name, the title of the paper, and the name of the site he was talking about and found these papers:
A puzzling Mule Coin from the Parabita Hoard: a Material Characterisation
In this research, we report on the compositional, microstructural and crystallographic properties of a lead coin which has been regarded for many years as a genuine silver coin minted in the Southern Italy in the course of the 4th century BC. The material characterisation of this object allowed detecting an ancient forging technology, not previously reported, which was meant for the silvering of lead substrates The data collected have disclosed a contemporary counterfeiting procedure based on a metal coating process onto a Pb substrate. This coating has been identified as a bi-layer with a Cu innermost and an Ag outermost visible layer. As far as the coating application technique is concerned, the gathered evidence has clearly indicated that the original appearance of this artifact cannot be explained in terms of any of the established methods for the growth of an artificially silvered coating in classical antiquity. This technology is now being explained in terms of modern, fully non destructive scientific methods.
Aristotle and Gautama on Logic and Physics
The question of the origins of logic as a formal discipline is of special interest to the historian of physics since it represents a turning inward to examine the very nature of reasoning and the relationship between thought and reality. In the West, Aristotle (384-322 BCE) is generally credited with the formalization of the tradition of logic and also with the development of early physics. In India, the Rigveda itself in the hymn 10.129 suggests the beginnings of the representation of reality in terms of various logical divisions that were later represented formally as the four circles of: "A", "not A", ":A and not A", and "not A and not not A''. According to Puranic accounts, Medhatithi Gautama and Aksapada Gautama (or Gotama), which are perhaps two variant names for the author of the early formal text on Indian logic, belonged to about 550 BCE. The Greek and the Indian traditions seem to provide the earliest formal representations of logic, and in this article we ask if they influenced each other. We are also interested in the scope of early logic, since this gives an idea to us of the way early thinkers thought about nature and change. We will show that Greek and Indian logical traditions have much that is distinctive and unique and that they must have emerged independently.
Polygonal walls and the astronomical alignments of the Acropolis of Alatri, Italy: a preliminary investigation
The astronomical orientation of the acropolis of Alatri, Italy, is analyzed. The results support the idea that this town, with its magnificent polygonal walls, was constructed well before the Roman expansion.
...and the last one is the one I wanted to read. I got there in the end. There's more on Babylonian and Indian astronomy in particular. If you have an interest in History of Science then it can be fun looking through the site.
Romanes Eunt McDonalds
According to the Sun Boadicea, scourge of the Romans might be lying next to a burger bar in Birmingham rather than under platform 9 at King's Cross.
Naturally the Sun has a reconstruction of how she could have looked.
World Mysteries: Garry Kasparov
Here's an odd piece by Garry Kasparov on the mysteries of ancient computing.
What's not to like?
 Some interesting tidbits about Imelda Marcos in the May 19 issue of The Week. First off, and this is important, she used to own several bulletproof bras.
Okay, now that that's over with we'll move on to classical content:"Imelda Marcos was never very popular with her subjects, says Camilla Long in Tatler. 'They ridiculed me, called me 'Imeldifici': extravagant, excessive, free-willed, and vulgar,' says the former first lady of the Philippines. 'What bothered me was 'vulgar.' So I started to searching to find out this Greek word, vulgaris. I discovered it means overly, overly beautiful. So now I have no problem." Yes, well....
A little later in this short but information-packed paragraph we get another indication of why Imelda's subjects may not have liked her:"The queen and I were watching the performance when suddenly one of the ministers collapsed and had a heart attack behind us, and his feet were sticking over our shoulders. It was so funny!" Whew! That is funny. And when Imelda kicks the bucket I bet it'll be hysterical.
The Little Hibiscus Fairy: Ancient Greeks
The Little Hibiscus Fairy is polling people on their favorite ancient Greek gods and goddesses. I think I have to agree with Frank Wilson on this one: I like Dionysos. Maybe it's just that I quite liked the Bacchae. I like Dionysos's mercurial, ambiguous self, and it probably doesn't hurt that I've always thought Q on Star Trek: The Next Generation was very Dionysos-like in his qualities.
Categories: classics
Tags: Dionysos, Greek gods, Star Trek
Who had the greatest political influence in the ancient Greek world?
Comments on the previous post tend to suggest that I made a mistake in leaving out someone who had a political impact on ancient Greece. I think that's a reasonable conclusion, but how many big politicians or generals would you put up if you have just four spaces? I'm still thinking just one because I'd want something that showed the diversity of ancient Greece's influence on the modern world, but you could make a good case for two. Anyway, below are a selection of politicians who you can vote for.
Alexander the Great: Arguably one of the greatest generals the world has ever seen. Alexander died before he was thirty-three but established a territory which would become three empires. He also demanded to be worshipped as a god. If you think he's overrated ask yourself, what would the world have been like if he'd gone west rather than east?
Cleisthenes: One of the great innovations of Athens was democracy, but could it have happened without this man? Cleisthenes overthrew the tyrant of Athens and installed a system which placed power in the hands of the people. Was democracy an idea anyone could have had, or was it an idea which required someone special?
Cleopatra: They say history is written to make the victors look good, yet Cleopatra was on the losing side. The Cleopatra we see is the iconic seductress, but is the historical record a fair reflection of her abilities as a ruler? If Julius Caesar had stayed at home to watch a DVD rather than visit the theatre, would we be talking about the woman who restored Egypt to its ancient glory?
Solon: Solon was one the seven sages of ancient Greece. Solon took power of Athens at the start of the sixth century when the city was in chaos. His reforms put place the foundations of what would later become the world's greatest democracy. When he has acheived this he then left the city rather than hold on to power. Was this when democracy was born?
Philip II of Macedon: Alexander may have conquered the world, but it was Philip of Macedon who gave him the means to do so. He's arguably the person who united much of Greece, but also arguably not a Greek himself. Could he be one of the greatest Greeks?
Peisistratos: Nowadays tyrant is also a negative description of someone. In the ancient world it merely meant someone who seized power contrary to the law. Peisistratos was one such man who seized power in a popular coup. He used his power to build new temples for the Athenians, a fountain house on the edge of the Agora for the women and commissioned the first written Athenian copies of the Iliad. Was he someone who saw what Athens needed, and simply did whatever was necessary to achieve it?
Pericles: The architect of Athens' Golden Age? Pericles ensured the city stood firm against Sparta during the Peleponnesian War. Without Pericles there would have been no Parthenon. Despite being a populist Thucydides noted Pericles "was not carried away by the people, but he was the one guiding the people." Would we be talking about Athens as the preminent city of ancient Greece if it wasn't for Pericles?
Themistocles: It's easy to be a great leader when things are going well, but what do you do when the Gods tell you all is lost and you should flee as far as you can? If you're Themistocles you tell the Gods they're wrong and to try again. Facing the might of the Persian army, it was Themistocles who ensured the Athenians fought behind the wooden walls of their ships and were able to return home. The fate of Phocaea showed that the Athenians were in very real danger of losing their homes to the Persians.
Lycurgus: Lycurgus lived in the distant past, the seventh century BC, in a city known for its lack of authors. Yet his name lives on as lawgiver to one of the weirdest states to have existed. The military might of Sparta can be traced back to the great Rhetra of man which created an education system designed to turn citizens into soldiers. The same state provided the soldiers which, under Leonidas, delayed the army of Xerxes long enough for Athens to prepare for the arrival the Persians. Could the survival of democracy be traced back to the man who created its antithesis?
There remains a very good chance I missed out an option you think is obviously the best choice. Why not tell me by leaving a comment below?
With the potential discussion you could also have for drama, science, poetry and Romans this sort fo debate could go on through the summer. If you want to set up your own poll then there's a box to sign up with Blogographos on the left.
Edited to add: You can also see the current results without voting.
Who were the four greatest ancient Greeks?
I'm stealing an idea from Chad Orzel.
Imagine maniacal genius has invented a super-laser that he has put into orbit. He is threatening to kill everyone on the planet (and he can) unless four nominations are given to him. If he receives four names from ancient Greece then he'll carve their faces into the cliffs overlooking Delphi, then destroy his laser and spend the remainder of his days devoting his life to helping orphans. If this ever happens in real-life then the guy is likely to be impatient so it helps to have these things worked out. Which four names do you choose?
At first it seems easy. Homer has to be up there. Homer was writing way before nearly everything that made Greece interesting happened, so you could make an argument that he shouldn't be there. I'd have to disagree though. Ancient Greece lived in the shadow of Homer. There wasn't any obvious definition of what it meant to be Greek, but Homer's work has to be one of the common factors that united the Hellenic world.
I'd also put up Herodotus. Thucydides was the better historian, but Herodotus invented the concept of history as we think of it now. His History opens
This is the display of the inquiry of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, so that things done by man not be forgotten in time, and that great and marvellous deeds, some displayed by the Hellenes, some by the barbarians, not lose their glory...
If history hadn't been invented until a later date then we'd still know a lot about ancient Greece, the Greeks were writing long before Herodotus put quill to parchment, but Herodotus's work put real humans into the past where before there were only the heroes.
Third I'd put Aristotle. Much as it grieves me to overlook Anaximander or Socrates I'd say Aristotle has created so much of our view of ancient philosophy and science. The range of his writing is astonishing and his willingness to say what others before him thought (before knocking down their arguments) tells us a lot about prior knowledge.
And that leaves a problem - just one space left.
There is an abundance of facial hair in my previous choices. It would be nice to have someone else. Sappho is the obvious choice, but is that tokenism? I think one of the tragedies of the ancient sources is their poor coverage of half of humanity. It is a fact that much of what we know about women is inferred through their influence. I should confess now that I still haven't got round to reading Trying Neaira. I think if you're going to base the nomination on evidence then it has to be another man.
I was tempted by Solon. Alexander might be another choice. It would seem odd not to include a politician from the culture that gave the world democracy, but neither of those two were democrats.
In the end I'd go for Aristophanes. Drama is another institution that should be recognised and even though his work was comedy, Aristophanes's plays were not without their political commentary. Plays like Knights, a satire on the politics of the time. In it a clumsily spoken politician keeps pressing the case for war to maintain his own standing. Two slaves find someone to stand against him and the political debate descends into cheap personal abuse. Obviously we've moved on a long way since then, but it does reveal an insight into Athens at the time of the Peloponnesian War.
So my choices are:
1 Homer
2 Herodotus
3 Aristotle
4 Aristophanes
You can add your comment below, I'd love it if someone could point out how I overlooked an obvious female choice. If you want to disagree at length then you may find it helpful to register using the panel on the left and start a new post. I am having second thoughts about Herodotus.
The Equites Who Say "Barbaroi!"
 There's an article by ex-python Terry Jones, "Decline and fall of the Roman myth," in Sunday's Times Online. It's apparently an excerpt from Jones's newest book Barbarians, released this month. Via Books, Inq.
Tags: books, Monty Python, Terry Jones
Metablog
A few aesthetic changes here at blogographos....
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