Category: Uncategorized
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Scribbling in the Wild: Creative Writing, Self-Publishing, and Finding Your Inner Author in 2022 (Part 1)
As we reach the end of another fraught year with unfortunately more of the same looming on the horizon, I thought I’d take a break from telling all of you things you’d rather not know about the ancient world and talk a little about my main gig, writing. When I talk to people about writing…
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Vives Annos: Foreign Influences on the Saturnalia
“Well (since our ancestors would have it so), use the freedom of December [and] speak on.” – Horace to his slave, Davus, on the Saturnalia (Satires, II, 7.4) I’m writing this up on the Sigillaria (December 23rd), the last day of the best known of the Roman festivals, the Saturnalia. The Sigillaria was devoted to…
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When Memes Attack: Medieval Deep Fakes and the Fabulous Reign of Prester John
“I even made poor Louis take me on Crusade. How’s that for blasphemy? I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn… but the troops were dazzled…” – Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Lion in Winter As the heart of the increasingly-lengthy…
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One For the Girls: The Daughters of Heracles
Daughters are so easy to forget — Catherine of Aragon, Six: The Musical While hunting about for a good topic for this week’s entry, I ended up falling down a Wikipedia rabbit hole about the Heracleidae, the children of the Greek hero Heracles (Roman: Hercules). While Heracles is generally given four official wives (Megara, Omphale, Deianira, and…
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Rigid Flexibility: Change & Continuity in Ancient Egyptian Art
“Slide your feet up the street, bend your back/ Shift your arm then you pull it back/ Life is hard you know (oh way oh)/ So strike a pose on a Cadillac” – The Bangles (again) I thought this week we’d look at an evergreen topic—Egyptian art. In part because I like doing art entries…
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Rome’s Mystery Goddess: Bona Dea and Her Cult
“[C]um fuget a templis oculos Bona Diva virorum, praeterquam siquos illa venire iubet.” (“Bona Dea bars the eyes of men from her temple, except such as she bids come there herself.”) – Ovid, Ars Amatoria This week I thought we’d jump back into some ancient festivals, and coming up next week on December 3rd is the…
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Jacobean Gossip Girl: Mary Wroth’s Urania
“[2/5 stars] I died and seriously started contemplating why I’m in the English program.” – Goodreads reviewer “I don’t think I want you to pass that one along to me.” – my mom One day I might use this space to talk about popular Renaissance literature, but today is apparently not that day. But in…
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Rumor, Roses, and Revenants: Ten Unusual and Obscure Greek Deities
“Fabulous party. You know, I haven’t seen this much love in a room since Narcissus discovered himself.” – Hermes, Hercules All of you probably thought I had forgotten about the Greeks when I did my entries on lesser-known Egyptian and Roman gods and goddesses, but never you fret, dear readers. You might think you know all…
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Expedition Unknown: The Lost Land of Punt
“They arrived safely at the desert-country of Coptos: they moored in peace, carrying the goods they had brought. They [the goods] were loaded, in travelling overland, upon asses and upon men, being reloaded into vessels at the harbour of Coptos. They [the goods and the Puntites] were sent forward downstream, arriving in festivity, bringing tribute…
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The Bones Are Their Dollars: Ghosts in the Ancient World
“Hail thou One, who shinest from the moon. Grant that this one may come forth among thy multitudes who are at the portal. Let [me] be with the Light-god. Let the Duat be open to [me].” – The Book of Coming Forth by Day “We’ve been going about this all wrong. This Mr. Stay Puft’s okay!…
Sarah Holz 