Category: Uncategorized
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The OG MC: Homer and the Evolution of Art in the Ancient World
I was reading a really interesting article about Egyptian art and its depictions of unknown and extinct animals. The particular example the article is exploring are so-called “Meidum Geese,” a plaster painting in the tomb of the Fourth Dynasty (2600s – 2400s BC) prince, Nefermaat. Aside from its great beauty and realism, the painting depicts…
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Wolf-Men Gone Wild: the Lupercalia & a Valentine to Roman Marriage
So after my last entry where I made fun of my local weather-casting whistle pig (if you’re not from Appalachia, look it up), it feels appropriate to return (two days late), to talk about one of the weirder (and that’s a statement) Roman festivals, the Lupercalia, celebrated on February 15th. Which does mean we’re going…
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Six More Weeks of Something: Prognostication and the Art of the Future in the Ancient World
“You want a prediction about the weather you’re asking the wrong Phil. I’ll give you a winter prediction: It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be grey, and it’s gonna last you the rest of your life.” — Groundhog Day I wasn’t sure what this week’s entry was going to be about, but then I woke…
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Sitting Pretty: Hair, Makeup, and Jewelry in the World of The God’s Wife
“You’re not decorating a girl for a night on the town/ And I’m not a second-rate queen getting kicked with a crown.” – Eva Peron, Evita Over the summer I did an entry about clothing in the Ptolemaic/ early Roman Empire, but I thought we’d come back to personal dress again and talk about accoutrements.…
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The Art of Living with Caesars: The Calpurnii, the Villa of the Papyri, and Roman Home Architecture
“If a painter should wish to unite a horse’s neck to a human head, and spread a variety of plumage over limbs taken from every part, so that what is a beautiful woman in the upper part terminates unsightly in an ugly fish below; could you, my friends, refrain from laughter, were you admitted to…
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A Macedonian, a Roman, and a Frenchman Walk into India: History and Theatre in Alexandre le Grand
“Your work is puerile and under-dramatized. You lack any sense of structure, character, and the Aristotelian unities.” – Wednesday Addams, Addams Family Values When I started blogging again, I had intentions of talking about what I was reading from time to time, but had never really gotten around to something that might make a good…
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A Mixology of Mythology: Religious Exchange and Assimilation in the Ancient World
“Hello! Would you like to change religions? I have a free book written by Jesus!” – Elder Cunningham, The Book of Mormon We talked a little about how ancient mythologies absorbed and built upon one another in my entries about Set and demonic entities, but I thought this week we’d dig a little deeper and…
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Spin Dramatists & Dilettantes: Poetics and Statecraft in Augustan Rome
Study I not o’ermuch to please thee, Caesar and court thee, / Nor do I care e’en to know if thou be white or black. – Gaius Valerius Catallus Last week we saw how state sponsorship of the arts is older than PBS’ annual pledge drives, and how the right political patron can produce a…
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Cue the Memes: Fact & Fiction About the Library of Alexandria
Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit. [If you have a garden in your library, nothing will be lacking.] – Marcus Tullius Cicero So after two straight weeks of trying to school all of you in matters admittedly outside my wheelhouse, I thought we’d come back to something much more my speed… … and talk…
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Super Troopers: Ground Warfare in the World of The God’s Wife
I am the very model of a modern Major-Gineral / I’ve information vegetable, animal, and mineral – The Pirates of Penzance We shipped off into the navy last week, so this week we’ll come back ashore and talk a little about the land militaries of the late Ptolemaic/ early Roman imperial age. Personally (though I…
Sarah Holz 