Category: Uncategorized
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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!…
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Lost, Cursed, and Found: The Ring of Silvianus and Latin-Celtic Britain
Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. – The curse of the One Ring, The Lord of the Rings A lot of times when I’m writing about things here, I’m delving into stuff that has come up in my book research, or is a topic I’ve always been interested in. But this…
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“That Best of Men”: Virgil, Horace, and a Friendship in Verse
As usual, I spent most of the past couple of days being completely stymied as to what to talk about this week, but then I remembered that today (October 15th) is Virgil’s birthday (he’s turning 2,091). So in his honor, I thought we’d talk a little about ancient Rome’s most famous poet. But since Virgil…
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History’s Heirs: The Royal House of Mauretania
Great neighbouring regions of the world, which divides the Nile,/ Swollen from black Ethiopia, divides,/ You have created common kings for both through marriage, making one race of Egyptians and Libyans./ Let the children of Kings in turn hold from their fathers a strong rule over both lands. – epigram on the occasion of the marriage…
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Poetry, Treason, and Payback: Roman Censorship and Ovid’s Exile
“I am the only one whose own Muse has been his ruin.” — Ovid, Tristia I swear one day this blog will get back to the Egyptians or the Greeks (or, gosh, maybe something novel). But since this is Banned Book Week in the US, it seems like a good time to talk about something ancient that…
Sarah Holz 