Category: Uncategorized
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Death Becomes Her: Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe & Clitophon
“Alas, Leucippe, how often have I seen you die!” – Leucippe & Clitophon (VII, 5.2) “The first time you came back from the other side, I thought it was the most phenomenal thing I’d ever heard. And the second time, I thought, ‘Wow! What are the odds?’ And the next four times I thought, ‘Well,…
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Archetype and Innovation: The Little Clay Cart and Classical Indian Theatre
“The rapacious greed of prostitutes robbed you of everything. No age has heard of a prostitute wanting to have compassion on another or to spare the passions which in a certain way they are able to consume.” – Fulco of Deuil to Peter Abelard (12th century CE) “Such a woman, the jewel of our city,…
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A Preview Post for the Next Book
Okay, I had planned to write up a whole post about classical Indian theatre, which I’m sure I’ll do in the near future. But I had also promised updates on my next book assuming the verdict from my editor wasn’t a total disaster, and since I’ve just wrapped up my first pass through her notes…
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Publishing Perils: Mark Twain, Amanda McKittrick Ros, and the Exuberant Afterlife of Irene Iddesleigh
“Over the years A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage has been ignored almost entirely by the myriad scholars who have scrutinized every other scrap of Twain’s writing voluminously.” – Roy Blount Jr., foreword to the Norton edition (2001) “Ros’ writing is not just bad, in other words; its badness is so potent that it seems to…
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In the Noh: The Poetics of Classical Japanese Theatre
CHORUS: Pine Wind and Autumn Rain Both drenched their sleeves with the tears Of hopeless love beyond their station, Fisher girls of Suma. Our sin is deep, o priest. Pray for us, we beg of you! (They [Matsukaze and Murasame] press their palms together in supplication) Our love grew rank as wild grasses; Tears and…
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Demons, Cannibals, and Courtesy: Richard Coer de Lyon and Inventing Modern English Mythology
Incredible as he is inept Whenever the history books are kept, They’ll call him the Phony King of England! Robin Hood (1973) Every five to ten years since the invention of film at the turn of the twentieth century, Hollywood has forced another movie in the Robin Hood mythos on us—whether, as noted by far…
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Scaling the Walls of Medieval Troy: Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie
Trop a esté li siegles feus Et sera tant come il durra: Ja autrement ne finera. [The world has been exceedingly cruel and will continue in this way as long as it lasts. It will never end in any other way.] (Roman de Troie, lines 29318-20) After a couple years of very solid, regular output,…
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Oh No! They Say Caesar’s Got To Go!: Lucan’s Pharsalia
How mighty, how sacred is the poet’s task! He snatches all things from destruction and gives to mortal men immortality. Be not jealous, Caesar, of those whom fame has consecrated; for, if it is permissible for the Latin Muses to promise aught, then, as long as the fame of Smyrna’s bard endures, posterity shall read…
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Gods, Girls, and Gender: Elagabalus and the Cultural Politics of the Severan Roman Empire
Since it’s Pride Month here the US for our LGBTQ+ community, I thought we’d do a little deep dive into the reign of Rome’s queerest ruler (yes, even more than Hadrian…), the 3rd century emperor Elagabalus (c.204-222 CE), formerly mentioned on this blog as a Vestal Virgin-marrying early adopter of the wheelbarrow/unicycle. Held by many traditional historians…
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The Cakes of Osiris are a Lie: Portals of the Duat and their Keepers
“Ugh,” scoffs the first man. “Don’t let her bother you. You know the Egyptians dream up the maddest things…” – Children of Actium Last week we looked at the seven gates a soul must traverse as part of their journey through the Egyptian Duat in order to prove their worthiness to the gods of the afterlife, as…
Sarah Holz 