‘Classics in the news’ Category
It’s All Greek to…Hollywood?
Apparently Hollywood is working on a blockbuster movie about the Greek gods. According to Variety: Fox 2000 has assembled a cast of Greek gods for the fantasy adventure “Percy Jackson.” Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan and Sean Bean have signed on to play Medusa, Chiron and Zeus, respectively. Kevin McKidd (Poseidon) and Melina Kanakerides (Athena) are also joining the [...]
A Tipsy Hero–wine-drinking in the Odyssey
In connection with the previous post on feasting with good food and friends, here’s an article on wine-drinking in the Odyssey from the New York Times: A student in one of my English classes recently asked about the endless references to drinking wine in “The Odyssey.” The question, which had nothing to do with my lesson, [...]
Tricolon, anaphora and autonomasia in Obama’s speeches
Ever since the historic speech that he gave at as a rookie senator at the 2004 Democratic Convention, Obama has been mesmerizing large audiences with his rousing speeches. Charlotte Higgins, writer for the Guardian and author of “It’s All Greek To Me: From Homer to the Hippocratic Oath, How Ancient Greece Has Shaped Our World” [...]
Classics, Intellectuals, and Presidents in the News
Classics references seem to be playing a different role in newspaper articles of late. Instead of supplying analogies for misguided U.S. policies, classics now seems to be supplying a point of reference for the role of intellectualism in American political life and what that might look like under President Obama. Check out these classics shout-outs [...]
Antique Muses Stir a Modern Orpheus
Brought to you by Los Angeles via the New York Times: WITH its grand marble staircase, inner and outer peristyles and Roman gardens, the Getty Villa in Los Angeles seems a fitting backdrop for a small army of Greek gods, Roman warriors and Etruscan vases. But in two weeks visitors to the villa, which houses the [...]
The Real ‘Gladiator’
Tomb of the real ‘Gladiator’ discovered in Italy Archaeologists find tomb of the real hero who inspired epic film. Italian archaeologists have discovered the tomb of the Ancient Roman hero who inspired Russell Crowe’s character in the film Gladiator. Daniela Rossi, a Rome archaeologist, said that the discovery of the marble tomb of Marcus Nonius Macrinus, which [...]
Back from the Dead and More Relevant Than Ever
When an op-ed piece in the New York Times is entitled “Are We Rome? Tu Betchus!” you know it’s a good day to be a classicist. When it continues on to note that, “the decline and fall of the American Empire echoes the experience of the Romans,” you know that your appreciation of classics [...]
Roman Holiday
A Salon article on the experience of traveling in Rome. Read more here On the Fourth of July, a little group of Americans held a patriotic celebration in Rome’s Piazza Farnese. We chose a spot near one of the two monumental fountains, huge basins that were originally in the Baths of Caracalla, built around A.D. 212. [...]
Workings of Ancient ‘Computer’ Deciphered
Hot off the presses: After a closer examination of the Antikythera Mechanism, a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games. The new findings, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, [...]
Pompeii: When Ruins Face Ruin
This just in the New York Times: Citing threats to public security and to the site itself, the Italian government has for the first time declared a yearlong state of emergency for the ancient city of Pompeii. Nearly 2,000 years after Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii under pumice and steaming volcanic ash, some 2.6 million tourists tramp annually [...]